United Way volunteers build not only bikes for children but also a path toward independence and fitness

The volunteers gathered at Millvale’s Riverfront Park in the sweltering heat Friday morning, ready to start building bikes earmarked for youngsters throughout the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s service area.

Wendy Koch, United Way senior director of regional engagement, and others talked to them briefly about the benefits those children will derive from the Build a Bike event — freedom and independence, physical activity and outdoor play.

United Way Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer Linda Jones thanked the volunteers for donating their time and talents to assemble the bikes. She reminded them that they’re giving more: “You’re creating memories and joy for children who have never owned a bike.”

The Millvale event was the program’s third and final volunteer activity this year. Two others in Cranberry and Mount Pleasant had been held last week, with 20 teams working at each one.

In the 10 years of Build a Bike, United Way has distributed 2,100 bikes to kids, according to a United Way news release, and with this year’s volunteer events, the staff expects that total to exceed 2,700. United Way volunteers’ work ensures that 600 children in the region get their own bikes that come with a bag containing helmets, bike locks and safety instructions.

In her introduction, Koch reminded everyone that 41% of southwestern Pennsylvanians do not earn enough to afford the essentials — housing, food, utilities, child care and transportation, according to the United Way’s ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employment) data.  

“Things like a bike are not things a family can always fit into a budget,” she said.

Koch ran through a list of instructions for the 100 people who came from companies and organizations ranging from health care providers to banks to a labor union. She asked the teams to complete one new activity this year before they started their work: talk among themselves and write down what these new bikes will mean to those children.

Then they got down to work, with those who chose to work outside of the pavilion protected by pop-up tents from high temperatures and muggy weather.  The United Way had plenty of water and cooling cloths, along with some needed mist-spraying devices, to keep everyone as hydrated and cool as possible.

And one more thing: The nonprofit had tarps for those working outside the pavilion to cover up goose poop. A good-sized collection of those birds had landed at the park along with the volunteers. They pecked at the grass looking for food and left behind many deposits.

Koch told the crowd to be sure to lay down the tarps before they started to work under the tents. She and her husband will take those tarps home to clean them and get them ready for other United Way volunteer activities and events. “Last year I had them hung all over the fences at home,” she explained. “My neighbors wondered what I was doing ….”

The United Way provides each team with a bag of tools needed to work on the bikes, and Koch urged them to be sure to read the step-by-step instructions before starting. If the team needed help — and from a show of hands there were many new volunteers this year — just ask, Koch told everyone.

Once the bikes are assembled, a bike safety expert — one of whom was Koch’s father, Rege Urban — checked them over carefully. (Koch said Urban is “one of those men who could fix anything. I married someone just like him.” And after nine years of shepherding and participating in Build a Bike, she can check bikes out just like those experts.)

The volunteers got into their work quickly, including a few returning teams who brought power tools to make their work easier and faster. More experienced volunteers helped novices, and the teams developed their own method and rhythm to get the bikes assembled. Within less than an hour, the line of bikes for those safety experts to check grew quickly.

A member of the United Way board, Laura Miller, worked with her UPMC Health Plan team. She’s an attorney — her exact title is divisional chief legal officer and vice president of government programs, licensing and corporate governance. She’s been comfortable with tools, as she comes from a family that owned a roofing business.

She has volunteered a number of times, fitting for someone who chairs the United Way board’s volunteer committee. “When I come to these things,” Miller said, “I say these are like my people.”

And with that prior experience? “I feel like I am an expert now.”

She lives in Point Breeze with her husband and their 13- and 11-year-old daughters. They all ride bikes, which she said took some hard work for her girls to master. That paid off, she said. “It’s nice for them to not have to ask mom or dad to always take you [places].”

Miller noted that the OpenStreetsPGH program would take place in the city’s East End Sunday. “A lot of the city is doing all it can to make this a bike-friendly city.”

Koch told the volunteers that Build a Bike is her favorite activity, and it’s one many United Way staff members gladly volunteer for each year. They hang around after the work is done to wait for the partner agencies to come and collect the bikes for the children they have identified.

Partnering is a critical component for this longtime event’s success and others, according to the event news release. Recognizing that everyone deserves to have a positive start toward adulthood and opportunities to fulfill their potential, the United Way funds partner agencies that meet basic needs, and organizations that prioritize the well-being and development of young people. In 2023 alone, United Way invested $1.5 million in 30 agencies working to level the playing field for students from pre-K to high school and beyond, the release stated.

“I’ve said this event is all about the power of the United Way,” Koch said. “People give us money — $37 million through their donations. That’s the power — giving those dollars to the organizations that know where there is the most need. We helped 1.3 million people last year.”

The United Way’s Build a Bike sponsors this year are WestPenn Power, Highmark Health, Ebara Elliott Energy and FedEx.

Partner agencies that will distribute the bikes to children are Best of the Batch, Bible Center Church, Catholic Charities Diocese of Pittsburgh, Homeless Children’s Education Fund, Pittsburgh Faison, Pittsburgh Lincoln, South Hills Interfaith Movement, Voices against Violence, and Young Black Motivated Kings and Queens.

Millvale volunteers came from Confluence Financial Partners, Covestro, Duquesne Light, Federal Home Loan Bank, FedEx, Grant Thornton, Highmark, Jones Day, IBEW Local 29, Massaro Properties, PNC, PPG, UPMC, United Way Next/Gen Ambassadors, United Way Women United, United Way Tocqueville Society, University of Pittsburgh and Williams.