100 Dallas Second Graders Gifted With Bikes From Chicago High School Athletes
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Whether it's paying for someone's coffee or police officers giving drivers cash instead of tickets, the "Pay it Forward" movement has inspired random acts of kindness across the county. Now, high school athletes are getting on board.
On Wednesday afternoon, 100 Carolyn G Bukhair Elementary School second graders identified as low-income received free bikes thanks to 2,000 high school soccer players from the Chicago area.
"The fact that they're going to get bikes today when a lot of them did not even receive gifts for Christmas, it's going to be amazing," Bukhair Assistant Principal Marcy Nazario said.
The athletes are participating in the "Making a Difference On AND Off The Field" campaign which is inspired by the "Pay it Forward" movement. Late last year, each athlete donated $1 to put towards purchasing the bikes.
"These events happen all the time throughout the Chicagoland area and this time they wanted to spread it to other states," organizer Joe Trost said.
The hope is this random act of kindness inspires others in North Texans to start their own pay it forward campaigns. Each student attending the program was also given $1 of their own to put toward a pay it forward project.
"I feel his excitement from the seat honestly," parent Martha Mendoza said about her second grader. "This will definitely be more encouraging. He'll see if you become somebody you can actually pay it forward as well."