Cycling Tips & Stories

Her comment reminds me of her Web site, www.markreynoldsfund.org, a site that is all about children.

“When he died,” Dona recalls, “I knew immediately what he wanted me to do. Mark never forgot his first bike. He loved giving bikes to underprivileged children. He would say, ‘Mom, that’s the greatest feeling I can have is giving a child his first bike.”’

Since launching the fund, Dona estimates the non-profit charity has given away more than $30,000 worth of bikes to children in Orange County, Missouri, Illinois and elsewhere.

“I’m a mother on a mission,” she says. “I see the smiles on their faces and it takes me back 30 years and I see Mark on his first bike.”

Dona even managed to raise money on Jan. 7 during a trip to Anaheim, Calif., for a motocross show. Still, she’s not ready to visit Whiting Ranch, and declined to join her husband for a trip to the bench Mark’s friends put up.