For an 8-year-old, few things beat the freedom of a bicycle in the summer. The days of no school seem endless and open, and so does the road.

Any kid will likely agree riding is better than walking, especially if that kid is one of the group hanging around the house at 512 W. Brady St.

That's home base for Laura and Mike Wick's fledgling bicycle charity, now in its second month.

“The goal was a bike and helmet for every kid in the neighborhood,” Laura said. “We're not trying to be picky and choosy. We're trying to cover everyone.”

That “everyone” includes brothers Drennen Potter, 7, and Korbin Potter, 9. Their bikes were both stolen last summer. The boys and their sister, Stevi, 6, all received bikes and new helmets in July from neighborhood donors.

“I felt happy that I was getting a helmet so that I could finally ride my bike and be safe,” Stevi said.

The idea to match children in her neighborhood with free bicycles came to Laura at the beginning of the summer. Her own children, Liza, 7, and Jason, 6, were riding secondhand bikes, but some of their friends were without wheels.

“Half the neighborhood had bikes and half of them didn't,” Laura said. “When I was a kid, most of my memories are with bikes.”

She posted a message to Facebook expressing her wish to collect and distribute bikes and new or gently used helmets.

“I thought maybe I'd get three or four bikes, and it kind of exploded,” Laura said. “We've helped 27 kids now in some way, whether it was just fixing up a bike they already had, giving them a bike or getting them a helmet.”

Laura said she and Mike store the donated bicycles in their backyard while Mike makes repairs or adjustments. At the beginning of August, he was readying “new” bikes for six different kids.

The Wicks get their giveaway bikes through donations and yard sale finds.

Monetary donations are put toward repairs and new helmets. Laura said she and Mike help each child select his or her own helmet from the store. No one rides away without a helmet.

“Some of them get lazy about it,” Mike said. “We'll see them riding around and have to yell, 'Hey! Where's your helmet?'”

The Wicks keep the children involved in nearly every step of the process. Mike said they even “get in the toolbox” with him to help with repairs to their own and others' bicycles.

But the Wicks' involvement doesn't stop at the end of their driveway. Because this is the first bike many may have owned, the Wicks also give riding lessons in the neighborhood and at Alameda Park.

“I lead and (Mike) brings up the back, and we sandwich the kids in the middle,” Laura said.

Eight-year-old Cali Pinnell got her first bike Aug. 5. Laura is teaching her to ride with the new training wheels Mike installed.

“Anywhere me and my mom go, I can ride my bike,” Cali said.

Despite spearheading the project, Laura and Mike said their neighbors deserve the credit.

“We haven't spent any of our own money, and we didn't have any bikes to give away,” Laura said. “It's all other people and we're really grateful for the people that have pitched in.”

Now that the grade school youths have bikes, the Wicks are asking for bikes and helmets for teenagers.

“The kids that don't have bikes, they can't keep up,” Laura said. “(Now) everybody's on the same level. They can all ride. They can all hang out together.”