PITTSTON, LUZERNE CO. (WOLF) \u2014 This Christmas, children from over a dozen school districts in Northeastern Pennsylvania will put pedal to the metal with brand-new bicycles.<\/p>\n
This bike distribution started small, according to Senator Marty Flynn, and quickly grew to numbers he never could\u2019ve imagined.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started out probably 50 bikes, 100 bikes, about 12 or 13 years ago. It\u2019s grown, 250, 500, 750,\u201d said Senator Flynn.<\/p>\n
But even 750 pales in comparison to the rows of bikes sitting inside the Mericle warehouse in Pittston.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got 2,000 bikes to give away to some of the less fortunate kids in Northeast PA,\u201d said Senator Flynn.<\/p>\n
Senator Flynn says each bike would normally cost around one hundred dollars each, a price tag many families just can\u2019t afford.<\/p>\n
To make the distribution possible, the senator partnered with a local Walmart, to get a discounted price on the bikes, along with rebates.<\/p>\n
\u201cBikes give kids a sense of independence. It\u2019s freedom for a kid to get a bike and go out on their own in the neighborhood and have fun,\u201d explained Senator Flynn.<\/p>\n
The senator works with local school districts to locate children in the community in need of a bike.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe school principals go to the teachers, the teachers go to the principals, the principals go to the superintendents. I have superintendents in Santa hats showing up with U-Haul trucks to pick up bikes for their community,\u201d explained Senator Flynn.<\/p>\n
The bikes come in two sizes with two color variations for each size. The smaller bikes are equipped with training wheels.<\/p>\n
Like a kid on Christmas, Senator Flynn was in awe of the brand-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSTON, LUZERNE CO. (WOLF) \u2014 This Christmas, children from over a dozen school districts in Northeastern Pennsylvania will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-61667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-scranton","9":"tag-scranton-headlines","10":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}