Maine boy receives adaptive bike thanks to Delaware-based organization

By Jim Keithley

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    POLAND, Maine (WMTW) — A group rolled into Maine with a shiny new adaptive bike for a 15-year-old boy named Johnny Bisbee.

“Did you come all this way to bring Johnny a bike?” asked Johnny’s mother, Kelley Bisbee as she greeted Preston Beunaga. “Thank you, guys, so much,” she said.

Deb and Steve Beunaga travel the country with their son, Preston, who has special needs. They have hit 40 states. Tuesday was their first time to Maine. The Beunaga’s said when Preston needed an adaptive bike, it was too expensive for the family.

“His bike was $2,200 and friends and family raised money in five days – this was before GoFundMe, before Crowdrise, before anything,” said Deb Buenaga. “We received checks in five days for $2,300 and we looked at each other, my husband and I looked at each other, and we wanted to pay it forward.”

Hence their organization’s motto: “Paying it forward one bike at a time.”

Preston’s parents launched Preston’s March for Energy eleven years ago. In those eleven years, they have delivered more than 600 adaptive bicycles to kids all over the country.

Kelley Bisbee reached out to the nonprofit in the spring. There are more than sixty kids on a waiting list, but Tuesday was Johnny’s lucky day.

“He’s never been able to ride a bike independently before, so this is amazing. Normally we’ve been fighting with training wheels to hold him up, so this is just incredible,” said Kelley Bisbee.

Now the Bisbee’s want to pay it forward and bring joy to other families. Johnny’s dad said he was particularly proud, but in a different way.

“So many things that people think they can’t do, but if you just give them a little bit of a chance, they can accomplish so much,” said Buzz Bisbee. “So many people don’t give them that chance. They just write them off, stick them in a corner and just kind of forget about them.”

On Tuesday in the parking lot of Poland Town Hall, Johnny was mastering the art of biking and learning the importance of breaking.

A small step, but a big deal for the family as they watched their son experience the joy of riding a bike, just like every other child.

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