JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) Students at a Joplin elementary school are the happy owners of new bicycles, courtesy of hundreds of employees of Payless ShoeSource.
Joplin’s Irving Elementary School was among thousands of buildings destroyed in the tornado that killed 161 people in the southwestern Missouri city last May 22. One of two Payless stores in Joplin was also destroyed.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the Topeka-based company was looking for a creative way to help Joplin’s children. So at an annual meeting last week in Kansas City, more than 370 Payless workers from all over the world built 207 bikes one for each student at Irving Elementary.
The bicycles were delivered Tuesday, along with helmets and locks. A Payless official says every bike was custom-built for the child’s height and color preference.
