When Makinzie Frank-Guzman started working on achieving the highest award possible in Girl Scouts, she considered rallying the community to build a skate park where kids can enjoy the great outdoors.
But after a pandemic, the 15-year-old decided the best way to advance physical and mental health among youth was to get them back outside – and back on bicycles.
“Being outside, in general, is something that a lot of kids today need,” said Frank-Guzmam, who has been a member of Colusa Girl Scout Troop No. 1764 for 10 years. “Many are isolated and have become anti-social. It’s not like it used to be. We were friends with our neighbors down the street and we would get together and go ride bikes.”
Frank-Guzman has spent most of her life in Girl Scouts, and she knew from the start that her work toward her prestigious Gold Award, the equivalent of an Eagle Scout for boys, would be something hands-on. The teen eventually plans to attend college to study mechanical engineering.
“That is why I wanted to collect used bikes and fix them up for kids – needy kids or just kids who want a bicycle or would benefit from riding a bike,” she said. “I really like working with my hands.”
Frank-Guzman is working with Siler Green-Miller, who owns a bike repair business in Colusa, to collect up to 50 donated bicycles that can be rehabilitated and distributed.
The project doesn’t just benefit youth – but the environment, she said, because abandoned bicycles often end up on the side of the road, tossed into rivers and streams, or in a landfill.
“The newer bikes tend to break down a lot and people just abandon them,” said Frank-Guzman.
Yet, many people, Frank-Guzman suspects, have kept reliable older bikes they’ve outgrown or ones that are in need of minor repairs or new tires, which she said she is more than willing to do if the bikes can go to new homes with children who will ride them.
“Being able to fix things makes me happy just knowing I did that,” she said.
However, the biggest joy Frank-Guzman hopes to get from her projects is to make bicycling “a thing again.”
For the past few years, the girl scout said she has seen too many youth and peers retreat from society, become depressed, or engage in dangerous behavior, enabled by the internet, social media, and video games.
She hopes for some youth, that trend can be reversed if she can promote cycling, which has proven mental, physical, and societal benefits.
“Bikes give kids adventure, FrankGuzman said. “Right now, they are stuck inside making an adventure on a video game that they are not going to remember. I would rather see kids outside playing than inside playing video games. When you are outside, you learn and are doing something hands-on.”
To donate a bike, call Frank-Guzman at (530) 755-8557.
Frank-Guzman anticipates receiving her Gold Award at a ceremony in Sacramento in September. ■