D-backs, Boys and Girls Club team up to give kids new bikes

PHOENIX — It was smiles all around as the Arizona Diamondbacks, Safelite AutoGlass and the Phoenix Fire Department presented 150 brand new bicycles to young children in West Phoenix on Friday.

The kids belong to the Jerry Colangelo Branch of the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Phoenix.

Officials said many of the children have never had a new bike. Genesis, a 10-year-old, was among the excited kids.

“It would be like amazing to like just go around in circles with it,” she said.

Two members of the Arizona Diamondbacks, shortstop Ketel Marte and pitcher Fernando Salas, helped pass out the bikes.

They even worked with kids on learning how to ride.

Ketel Marte and Fernando Salas delivered more than 100 new bikes and helmets to kids at a local Boys and Girls Club today as part of @safelite‘s Summer of Safety. #DbacksGiveBack pic.twitter.com/iJiRBwYaeU

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) June 16, 2018

Members of the Phoenix Fire Department also held a bike rodeo on the club’s outside  basketball court to teach kids safe ways to ride their new bikes – and the helmets that came along with them.

“I love doing this,” Marte said. “We’re just trying to make a kid happy.”

Salas said he had never seen that many bikes before.

“But you know what? It’s a great thing for this situation for this event  and we’re glad to be able to see the kids so happy,” he said.

The D-backs and Safelite also teamed up with the Phoenix Fire and Police Departments on June 9 to deliver bikes to the Warner A. Gabel Branch of the Boys and Girls Club.

It is part of their Summer of Safety program designed to help children learn swim, car seat and bike safety, along with back-to-school immunizations.

Nate Bowman of the Boys and Girls Club said it was exciting for the kids.

“Every member that you have is going to get a bike, it’s amazing,” Bowman said. “When we told our parents about it, what was going to be happening, they couldn’t believe it either.”

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