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Sophomore Clarissa Echevarria carefully attached the handle to her newly-built bike, and later watched as a Marine Corps member placed her finished product on the truck. The entire sophomore class traveled to Tropical Park on Nov. 7 to participate in a bike building event in support of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Toys4Tots Program. The program would provide new bicycles for underserved children. Echevarria enjoyed the opportunity to give back to her community.

“I think that it is important to do your part to help the community, especially since I am so fortunate with everything I have. It felt good knowing that I was helping improve a child’s life, even if it was something as small as building a bike,” Echevarria said.

Not only did students enjoy doing their part for the community, but they also improved on some important life skills.

“We communicated with each other and arranged what each person’s job would be so that we could get our final product completed as fast as possible,” sophomore Felipe de Godoy Pracidelle said.

Before the students assembled the bikes, they had to complete a series of games to earn tokens, which they would then exchange for bike parts.

“We won the tokens by playing games, like bean bag toss and carrying a ball with a tarp to a basket without letting the ball fall. Once we had all of the bike parts, we would actually assemble it,” sophomore Milla van Gastel said.

Besides learning how to build a bicycle, students also learned a lesson in gratitude.

“This is such a good trip, because students are exposed to the idea and act of giving back, which also showed them how fortunate they are,” English teacher Erick Consuegra said.

Story by Julia Fogel

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This activity helped me to stay more in tune with what actually happens in the world and with knowing that some people do not have the opportunity to get Christmas gifts.”