ShawneeDispatch.com

One Shawnee 5-year-old’s desire to help children who have been abused or are in foster care has turned into an event for the whole community.

The By Kids, For Kids Bike-A-Thon is the brainchild of Zach Shrader and will benefit the Shawnee-based Sunflower House, a child abuse prevention center serving Wyandotte and Johnson counties, and the Kansas Children’s Service League, an organization that works with foster children and adoptees throughout the state. The bike-a-thon will take place from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Sunflower House, 15440 W. 65th St., with a $5 admission fee.

Zach’s mother, Tonya Shrader, said Zach decided some time ago he wanted to have a bike-a-thon to help raise funds for a worthy cause in the community. His parents think he may have gotten the idea from seeing some other events in the community, but Zach says he came up with the idea all on his own.

“I just wanted to have one,” he insists.

Then, in April, he and his mom started talking about orphans. That led to a discussion about foster children, as well as children who have been abused by their families. Zach took immediate interest.

“He said, ‘I know what we should do — you and Daddy should interview families and find the kids who are abused and collect them to live with us,’” Tonya Shrader said. “Since we can’t collect all the kids, we thought maybe foster kids and abused children would be a good cause for his bike-a-thon.”

The issue is one the Shrader family is familiar with; Tonya experienced childhood abuse and leads a group at the family’s church for child abuse victims. Because of that, she was familiar with the Sunflower House and contacted officials there, as well as the Kansas Children’s Service League, to see if Zach’s bike-a-thon was a possibility.

Teresa VandenBoom, development coordinator for Sunflower House, helped the family organize the event.

“It’s a unique event — a lot of times we have kids who want to donate their presents from their birthday parties to us, and that’s inspiring, but this is huge,” she said. “These kind of events are a great way to spread awareness about us. I think it’s even more effective when it comes from people in the community who have been inspired by our mission.”

The Shraders got to work right away planning for the event and even raising money. Zach helped his mom make about 40 loaves of Amish friendship bread to sell at a neighborhood garage sale in May, so he already has $112 to contribute to the organizations benefiting from his bike-a-thon.

“That’s a lot of money,” Zach said when his mom reminded him of the total.

Zach also gave his input on what he wanted to see at the bike-a-thon: bicycle courses to race through, one for “big kids” and one for “little kids,” as well as a bounce house, face painting, balloon animals and free Popsicles.

Zach has invited friends from school, church and his soccer team, but he hopes more people that he doesn’t know will show up. How many more?

“Fifty-five,” he said. “Or 76. Or 99.”

The more the merrier; Tonya Shrader said the family hopes the event also will help the community learn about the services Sunflower House provides, like classes for adults who want to learn how to recognize, respond to and prevent child sexual abuse.

“We want to raise money to support the needs of children in our community, while at the same time empowering adults to protect children,” she said. “The specific issue of child sexual abuse is hard for most parents to consider, but the surest way to protect our children is to get educated and implement that education in our daily lives…

“We want families to come to the Sunflower House, bike around, enjoy a carnival atmosphere, and leave with some knowledge in hand (pamphlets) about the next best step they need to take to protect the children in their lives.”

As for Zach, does he hope to continue to plan events that will help children in need as he gets older?

“I’m thinking ‘yes,’” Zach said.

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