Twenty-four children from the Timberlake Headstart program received brand new bicycles from Booz Allen Hamilton employees on Wednesday, Feb. 9, but the workers thought they were gearing up for a race of their own.
“We were having an all-hands workshop, part of which was focusing on diversity,” said Judy Merkel, director of recruiting for Booz Allen Hamilton. “We had a team-building event in the afternoon that the staff thought was a bike challenge.”
The workers, divided into 24 teams of five or six people, were given bicycles to be assembled, but they also had to come up with a team name and a cheer and decorate the completed bikes. Each team had about an hour and a half to complete its bike, decorate it, create a team name and poster and a cheer to be performed in front of the whole group, she said.
“You could see people working to get their bikes assembled the fastest, and it looked like they were preparing to race the bikes themselves,” she said.
After the team cheers had been presented, a worker dressed as a referee asked all bikes to be brought to the front of the ballroom where they had been working, and lined up in two rows.
“Are you ready to meet your racers?” she asked the enthusiastic workers.
As cheers rose up, few initially noticed the pairs of children walking across the room. When they did, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.
“When the kids came walking in, they [the teams] were shocked,” Merkel said. “It was one of the most moving things I’ve ever seen.”
The bikes were taken to bikes@vienna, a local bike shop, to be inspected for safety and will be returned to the children, some of whom asked Merkel and the workers if the bikes were theirs to keep or just play with for the afternoon.
“We also gave the kids a new helmet for when the bikes come back,” she said, but is not sure when they will be returned to the Headstart school.
“I think this is one of those really terrific moments you’ll never forget,” she said.