Student uses gift to get bicycles ready for children in-need

Anyone who has ever tried to put something together with many different parts and pieces knows how daunting it can be. The instructions are usually not the best and inevitably a few nuts and bolts are left over that obviously belong somewhere.

 Lauren Black does not have that problem. She is a natural at putting things together, especially those with moving parts. When she heard that some unassembled children’s bicycles had been donated to the school system for students in need, she eagerly stepped up to help put them together.

As a middle school student, caught between a need for some mobility, but being too young to drive, Lauren understands that a bike can mean freedom.

“I feel that every kid deserves something for Christmas. Every kid needs a bike to get around and to know what it feels like to ride like the wind,” Lauren says.

She assembled two bikes, one for a girl and the other for a boy. After completing the first bike, which seemed like a breeze for her, she only needed 15 minutes for the second.

Lauren’s natural talent for putting working parts together has her seriously considering a career in auto mechanics after high school graduation, that is unless she makes it onto the NASCAR scene, which is one of her dreams.
“I have loved seeing and hearing the sound of racing my whole life. To be able to do NASCAR would be just the coolest thing ever,” she says.

 Lauren says she wants to work her way through NASCAR from the ground up so that she has a good understanding of how it all works. Her ultimate goal is to race.

“I want to be in the pit crew and learn everything about cars. Then I want to be a driver,” she explains.

The bicycles Lauren assembled were distributed to elementary students in need by the Fayette County Public School System’s CARE (Children at Risk in Education) Angel Tree Project.