There’s a nice new effort to support Ukrainians on their way to Calgary.
The man stepping up is an old hand at helping others.
Cody Herriot operates a bike repair operation called Cody’s Bikes out of his garage in southeast Calgary.
He turned a longtime hobby into a way of making a bit of money.
“Since 2020, when I lost my job in oil and gas,” Herriot said. “Part of the downturn and the whole COVID thing.”
Soon after he started Cody’s Bikes, Herriot began helping families in his area by taking donated bikes, fixing them up and then giving them away.
“Somebody just dropped off a little kid’s bike here one day while I was fixing some bikes and said they didn’t want it anymore,” he said, “and it snowballed from there.”
Over the past two years, he’s provided bikes for 300 families.
“Hopefully it raises the floor a little bit for some families that are maybe not able to afford a bike for their little one,” Herriot said.
He is now getting six bikes ready for Heather Foisy, a Calgary woman who’s getting set to host a family coming from Ukraine.
“They are dealing with the trauma,” Foisy said. “This is just one other support that we can give them.”
Herriot expects he will soon be providing other bikes for Ukrainians fleeing the fighting in their country.
“For somebody coming from Ukraine, it makes life a little easier,” he said.
Foisy said she is very grateful for Herriot’s support.
“It’s amazing,” she said. “If you talk about everyday superheroes, that’s what Cody’s doing here.”
As a veteran triathlete, Herriot said he knows the great boost a bike can bring.
“When I was a kid, I was on my bike the whole day,” he said.
“If you can bring a little bit of that to some kid around the neighbourhood, it fills my heart. You know, (it) feels good.”