Article content
Alejandro Garcia, 11, was one of 100 young Montrealers who were given new bicycles Saturday by Sun Youth to reward them for helping their community.
Garcia, who lives in Pierrefonds, said he assists teachers at his grade school to correct assignments, lends a hand with the concierge to clean the corridors and even chips in to keep his schoolmates safe.
Article content
“He’s an extraordinary kid,” said his mother, Karla De Regules. “He does so much, not just for his friends and teachers at school, but also for people in the community. We don’t know who gave his name to Sun Youth and for what exactly. He helps everyone.”
Article content
Garcia also dreamed up a project to help kids who don’t have anyone to play with in the schoolyard.
“I created a friendship bench,” said Garcia, who is in Grade 5. “I read about the idea of friendship benches in books and I said: ‘Why don’t I do that in my school?’ And I asked if I could do it and we did it. We’re not finished yet, but we’ll finish it this summer. If you don’t have any friends, you can come sit on the bench and one of the people in charge of the kids outside will bring another student to sit with you and play with you. But if you don’t want to play with anyone, you don’t have to.”
Emma Ryann Corbett, 10, was given a bike to thank her for all of the fundraising she has done for the Montreal Children’s Hospital and Shriner’s Hospital. She has congenital scoliosis and has been treated ever since she was born at both hospitals. Her mother, Cari Friedman, said for each birthday, they ask friends and family to donate to the hospitals rather than giving gifts.
Ryann Corbett said she just wanted to “help kids who are sick in the hospital” and one of the things she loves most in the world is riding a bike, and she’s looking forward to riding it to the local park.
Marwane Lakhrissi, 12, received a bicycle in recognition of his bravery saving his sister from drowning in the sea off Morocco.
Lakhrissi and his brother were swimming near a beach and their younger sister came to join them, but didn’t know how to swim.
“So I went and saved her,” Lakhrissi said. “I brought her back to the surface of the water.”
This is the 40th year Sun Youth has given bikes, helmets and locks to young Montrealers, and more than 2,100 bicycles have gone to kids since the project started in 1984.
It has been entirely financed by Montrealer Avi Morrow, who died in 2019 at age 93. Sun Youth receives about $20,000 each year to buy the bikes.
Recommended from Editorial
Share this article in your social network