Marilyn Price

I pioneered the use of the mountain bike as a perfect vehicle to impart lessons in personal responsibility, achievement and environmental awareness through the development of practical skills and the simple act of having fun.

I had loved bicycling all my life and always thought I would be a social worker. Then, in the early 70’s, protecting the environment became one of my passions.”

One day in 1986, while biking up Mt. Tamalpais in California, I came up with the notion to combine my concern for environmental protection, my love of biking and my desire to help those less fortunate. It dawned on me that lots of inner-city kids were like me – they had never experienced the world outside their city. If they could get out into the splendor of the natural world, they might also have their lives enriched.

In 1999, at the age of 59, I launched Trips For Kids International. Today, 90 chapters are providing life-enhancing opportunities for 14,000 at-risk youth annually across the United States, in Canada, Africa and Israel, with more chapters on the way.

Our unique programs use the simple bicycle to inspire kids to develop a healthy lifestyle, challenge themselves, gain self-esteem, learn teamwork skills and much more.

Many other kids earn their own bikes while gaining valuable work skills and experience in Earn-a-Bike/Job Training programs. Overall approximately 140,500 youth have ridden with us. I want to continue to expand Trips for Kids chapters into more towns and cities in the U.S. and abroad.

One of the most exciting things is watching our kids’ faces light up as they challenge themselves to try something new, succeed, and realize they can do it. Once, one of our volunteers saw a group of kids on the mountain with bikes. Then one of them spoke up, “I owe my life to Trips for Kids – it introduced me to bicycling. Now I take my friends up here.”

My work is something I love and feel like it can do great things…it just keeps me going. I’ve been doing this for 26 years and I haven’t run out of steam yet. If you have the passion and work hard and keep at it, you can accomplish what you want regardless of your age. If you have something you really want to do, something you believe in just go ahead and start. One step leads to another, just take that first step.