There’s a lot of good people in Barrington who are helping. I thought it would be a lot more work, but it’s not that bad.”

Christopher Clyne

Christopher Clyne was bored with Xbox. 

The Barrington High School sophomore had, for the better part of the previous six months, played a lot of video games. In early March, feeling the need to do something a bit more productive, he looked to the middle school. 

One day, as he and his mother were driving by the middle school, he noticed the hordes of students who ride to school each day and remembered back to when he was a student there and how much fun he had riding his bicycle. 

“I loved it,” he said. 

Every kid deserves to have that much fun… and every kid deserves to have a bike, Christopher thought. But not all do. Christopher’s mother suggested a project: Repair old and broken bicycles and donate them to children in need.

“We had three bikes sitting in our garage,” Christopher said. 

The BHS student called a woman at the Boys and Girls Club of East Providence. She suggested he write down his proposal, so he did.

“They loved it,” he said. 

That was good news. But it was tempered with a minor set-back: He needed more bikes.

Christopher’s mother added a post to her Facebook page asking for old, tired, broken bikes. She said the bikes would be repaired and then donated. Christopher also tacked flyers to the walls at local coffeeshops and restaurants.

“We got about 15 bikes,” he said. “Most were in good condition.”

Meanwhile, Christopher was also fortunate to track down some assistance from The Red Shed, a bicycle repair program located in Providence. A person from The Red Shed stopped by Christopher’s house and helped him repair the donated bikes — they fixed broken brake cables, replaced missing pedals, and repaired rusty, locked-up chains. 

Christopher felt great about his project, but then spoke with the woman at the Boys and Girls Club. She said interest in a new, used bike had soared among the boys and girls at the club — officials there had purchased 60 bike helmets and 60 water bottles. Sixty bike helmets and 60 water bottles meant Christopher needed to track down, repair and donate dozens more bikes. 

“So we need a little help,” Christopher said.

A generous woman recently donated six more bicycles, and Christopher wrote a grant request to the local Rotary Club for $3,000. He is hoping the organization fulfills his request, which would provide crucial funding for the replacement bike parts. 

At last check, Christopher said he needs another 20 bikes, and he is hoping people in Barrington and beyond will help out. He said he is looking for larger bikes for middle school-age children. 

“We have a lot of kids BMX bikes and shorter mountain bikes,” he said. “We only have 10 road bikes. I’d like to get more bikes for like… eighth-graders. But any type of bike is good.”

Christopher, 16, said this project was daunting at first, but is now nearing the finish line.

“I do feel more fulfilled,” he said. “It’s kind of been pretty easy. There’s a lot of good people in Barrington who are helping. I thought it would be a lot more work, but it’s not that bad. It hasn’t been that bad.”

Christopher said he has also found inspiration in a sixth-grader from Chicago. Christopher has tutored the boy online for months.

“We get off-track a lot when we talk. He was talking about when he goes back to school, he’s going to start biking around with his friends,” Christopher said. 

Christopher knows how important that bike is to that boy, how it means freedom to ride around his neighborhood, to have fun, and to just be a kid. 

“He’s looking forward to it,” Christopher added.

Christopher said his project, sort of a test-run for his Barrington High School Senior Project in two years, has proven to be very rewarding. He said he still plays Xbox with his friends, but not as much as he used to. 

“Yeah, it’s better than being lazy,” he said.

Have an old bike? Want to donate it?

Barrington’s Christopher Clyne needs your help. Actually, he needs your old bike. The Barrington High School sophomore is collecting used bikes, repairing them, and then donating them to the Boys and Girls Club of East Providence. Anyone who wants to donate a bike — or donate replacement parts for older bicycles — can send Christopher an email at clynec4@gmail.com