Kids being kids, riding bikes with the wind on their faces. That's what summertime fun is all about.

Sixteen local kids from the Cochrane Filipino Community are now able to do just that, with bike donations from the Kiwanis Club of Cochrane.

In collaboration with local bike recycler GO Bike and with support from the Lions Club of Cochrane, The Kiwanis Club of Cochrane distributed 16 bikes for tykes in the community.

Kiwanis Club President, Ron Gosselin says that this initiative has been in the works for the last year.

"About a year ago we started to advertise a bike recycling program working with a local recycler Jeff Pike with Go Bike. We did advertise and as a result people offered up some bikes that they wanted to recycle and Jeff took a look at those bikes to see which ones could be recycled."

Gosselin says that the recycled bikes were brought to safety standards before distribution and the local Kiwanis Club made sure each child was equipped with safety gear.

He says "They would check the brakes and the gears, that's what Jeff did. Then we, The Kiwanis Club, whenever there was a missing safety feature we covered that piece and we also offered a brand new helmet for each bike that we donated."

Gosselin says that this is the first year of what he hopes to be a yearly program.

He says that the second part of the bike recycling program will take place next spring and will involve a  bike safety day.

"We applied and got a grant from the town for a bike safety day. So we would invite at large 50 kids to bring their bikes to be inspected for safety, making sure that the bikes work fine. We would also have presentations on bike safety on the road and on the trails, we would probably bring in someone from the RCMP or a Bylaw officer."

The Bike Recycling Program is one of the many initiatives of the Kiwanis Club of Cochrane. They also hold a Christmas Toy Project each year for disadvantaged kids in Cochrane and the surrounding areas, leadership programs as well as Kamp Kiwanis.