Annual OnBikes Winter Wonder Ride helping underprivileged Bay Area kids

OnBikes Wonder Ride in Tampa

FOX 13's Jennifer Kveglis talked with organizers about this thrilling and moving event.

TAMPA - Thousands of people sporting their best holiday garb gathered for the annual OnBikes Winter Wonder Ride at Curtis Hixon Park on Saturday to raise money to donate bikes to underprivileged Bay Area kids.

Onbikes Winter Wonder Ride.

"We shut down Bayshore completely. Go for an awesome family-friendly bike ride, come back to the park, and have an amazing dance party," said Julius Tobin, OnBikes Co-Founder.

The Winter Wonder Ride is the second in OnBikes' holiday series of events.

"It is one of the largest theme bike rides in the country," he said. The event is to raise money for the 1,000 bikes that were built at Amalie Arena last week. Tobin said it's so much more than the gift of a bike. "It allows these kids to get to job interviews or after-school programs, or boys & girls clubs or football practice," he explained, "Sometimes kids in bad situations, just to get out in their neighborhood and go be a kid again."

Mayor Jane Castor shared a few remarks with participants before the Wonder Ride began. She said, "We have the best day ever next week when we get to give the bikes, the bikes that you support to purchase and put together to young kids throughout the City of Tampa."

Annual OnBikes Winter Wonder Ride helping underprivileged Bay Area kids.

Next week, OnBikes will host distribution events. The first takes place on Monday. Tobin said, "We're taking a bunch of TECO lineworkers out into areas that they worked in after the hurricane and surprising kids who lost everything with bikes."

Then the annual caroling with Mayor Castor event will be held. "We have a full police motorcade, we take our float out, we go to the community center, and we call kids up one by one, and they get to pick out their first bike," he said, "It's just a testament to the power of teamwork and the power of community."

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