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'Warriors' group collects bikes for KCK students this holiday

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KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A local group has the wheels spinning on a project benefiting students this holiday season.

It's an effort to collect bikes for students in the Kansas City Kansas Public School District, and it's headed down the right path.

"We started on November 1, so I was like, for the next 30 days, we're going to collect 100 bikes," organizer Robbie Ray said.

It's a big goal for a short amount of time, but Ray is well on his way to reaching it.

"People are going out of their way, they're like, I want to help, I want to help and so, I'd like to say I'm surprised but I kind of expected that once it started to blow up. I feel like most people want to help out and give," Ray said.

After getting bikes for his neighbor's kids, Ray wanted to give more. He posted his idea to raise 100 bikes on social media and it received a great response. So far, Ray has collected nearly 75 bikes. To help get the bikes in the right hands, he partnered with Warriors 4 Wyandotte.

"These students, to hear their stories, and to hear the situations that they come from, to give them something like this, this is huge," Warriors 4 Wyandotte founder Robert Vargas said.

Vargas created the organization in January 2019. Warriors 4 Wyandotte is a group of male mentors, helping out students in KCK schools.

"A lot of the time, you can put incentives on kids to get their grades up, but how do you give an incentive to a 3rd grader to get to school?" Vargas said.

KCKPS has a 91.10 percent district wide attendance rate. It's just under the states 94.5 percent rate. Vargas said the bikes will help kids with transportation to and from school.

"Here it's not just a bike, you know, this is how a lot of these students get to school every day here in Wyandotte County," said Vargas.

The goal is to collect all 100 bikes, fix them up and have them ready to give out to families on December 21.

The group is in need of bikes, bike chains, tubes and wheels to get them up and running.

The drop off location for a bike is 401 N 78th Street in Kansas City, Kansas. To make a monetary donation, you can Venmo robbie-ray-1, Cash app $robbieray, or call 913-244-1496.