Team Play USA Donates Bikes to GRIC Youth

Jeston Morris

Gila River Indian News

Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) Lt. Gov. Regina Antone received a bike donation on behalf of GRIC youth at the Arizona Grand Resort from Team Play USA on April 30.

According to Jake Hillard, spokesman for Team Play USA, this organization offers a variety of services. One of the services is the bike build challenge for children in need. Team Play USA provides the bike and a group of volunteers build the bicycles and donates them to children in need. In this case, the bicycles are built and decorated for the Gila River youth. 

“Our target age is for 8 to 16-year-olds and the bike size ranges from small to large,” said Hillard.

The bike build challenge began at 4 p.m. Lt. Gov. Antone spoke at the beginning of the event. 

“I am excited to be here to witness the bike build challenge and donation. I don’t think I ever seen a bike put together,” said Lt. Gov. Antone. 

The Tactile Medical is the volunteer group who built and decorated 36 bikes. Each bike came with a helmet, tool kit, license plate and poster.

“We have 360 people here for the bike building challenge. They will be divided into 36 different teams. Each team will build their own bike,” said Hillard. 

Upon completing the bike build, the volunteers had a bike race. To win the race, the biker rode the newly built bike extra slow to the finish line. The slowest rider won. 

The event concluded with remarks by Lt. Gov. Antone, “Thank you very much for the bike build challenge and donation. I am honored to be here. Enjoy yourself! Have fun! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Many blessing to everybody.”