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    Club donates bike to Afghan child

    KHOWST PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN

    11.29.2011

    Story by Spc. Tobey White 

    3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division

    KHOWST PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Most people remember that fateful day as when they received their first bike. For one Afghan boy that day came on Forward Operating Base Salerno when he was given a bike from the Germany-based Kaiserslautern Military Community Cycling club, Nov. 28.

    The donated bike was the first one donated as part of a program KMC Cycling started to provide Afghan children with better transportation, said U.S. Army Maj. George Smolinski, a physician out of the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and individual augmentee to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Task Force Duke.

    In October, Smolinski, a St. Paul, Minn., native, began coordinating with KMC Cycling on how best to transport and distribute the bikes.
    “I was here [in Afghanistan] so we joined forces to make this happen,” Smolinski said.

    Service members donated used bikes to the program, which were repaired by members of KMC Cycling, Smolinski said. After the bikes had been fixed they were mailed to Afghanistan.

    “A lot of the kids are injured and biking is a great physical therapy for them,” Smolinski said. “For the young adults the bike will be a great means of transportation and can be used to haul equipment or groceries.”

    The boy chosen to receive the bike had been a patient of the Combat Support Hospital on FOB Salerno since May, when he was brought in after being in a motor vehicle accident, said U.S. Army Capt. Jeffrey Smith, a nurse with the 352nd Combat Support Hospital and a native of Oakland, Calif.

    The boy, affectionately named “Hot Rod” for his propensity to navigate the hospital in his wheelchair then crutches, remained in the hospital for two months while receiving treatments for his legs, Smith said.

    “He’s become dear to myself and the others over the course of time he’s been here,” Smith explained. “The hardest thing for him about the bike is he has to keep his leg straight for two more weeks and won’t be able to use it until then.”

    “This is a great first step we’ve taken here today and we hope to touch the lives of many more Afghani children through this program,” said Smolinski.

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 11.29.2011
    Date Posted: 11.30.2011 09:01
    Story ID: 80701
    Location: KHOWST PROVINCE, AF

    Web Views: 303
    Downloads: 1

    PUBLIC DOMAIN