CANCELLED Lauralynn Project visiting Worland Saturday

WORLAND – Cody resident Richard Perkins, founder of the Lauralynn Project, will be visiting Worland this Saturday to give bicycles to area children who can’t afford to buy one. He will be in Blair’s parking lot from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Perkins stated that the only thing that would keep him from coming to Worland is if the weather is bad making it unsafe to travel.

Close to 120 bikes will be available to be given away.

The Lauralynn Project was created two years ago after a woman in Cody, Lauralynn had her only form of transportation to and from work, her bicycle, stolen. Perkins said he saw her post on Facebook about having her bike stolen and offered a bike he had in the shed that he wasn’t using. Upon learning that her two children also didn’t have bikes, Perkins said he bought them bicycles at a garage sale.

Perkin’s granddaughter, Talisha Cross, moved by the actions of her grandfather, asked him to start a program to help other children who didn’t have bikes. “I thought about it for a few days and posted it on Facebook and the next thing I knew I had close to 100 bikes sitting in my yard,” Perkins said. “It’s been a rock and roll since,” he added.

So far the project has given out more than 7,000 bikes to children in the Big Horn Basin. The bikes have been donated to the project by community members and police stations, with many having been found at landfills and garage sales. “A lot of the bikes come in in pretty sad shape that need new tires, seats and all that stuff on them but we fix them up and pass them on to kids for free,” Perkins said. He added that the project is a non-profit organization and that all monetary donations go right back into the project to help fix up the bikes.

If anyone has a bike they would like to donate, Perkins can be contacted via his Facebook page or they can call him at 307-250-0132. Perkins will also be accepting bikes in any condition while in Worland. He stated that the only bikes that he won’t accept are mountain bikes as they have become too expensive to recondition and take up too much room in his trailers.