Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/67043
cycl thegiving t by seth putnAm h e family of three zips along Carpenter Street to the lilting sound track of a little boy's laughter. Six-year-old Lincoln Day perches on metal baskets hung over the back tire of his father's vintage Swiss Army bike, his curly blonde hair crowned with a bright orange helmet plastered with sports decals. Ahead, Lincoln's mother, Leah, pilots a long- wheel Surly with saddlebags and a tiny set of handlebars attached to the back of her seat. When the weather allows, they're what Lincoln hangs onto during their daily rides to school. But today, they're in a hurry. As Lincoln sticks his nose into the wind, his father, F.K., runs through a mental checklist of their morning: back to the apartment, helmets off, lunches packed, then off for a field trip. On this brisk morning in West Town, they could be any Chicago couple out for an early jaunt before head- ing to the office. But for F.K., 52, and Leah, 54, "the office" is usu- ally on two wheels. They run an organization called World Bicycle Relief, which supplies bikes to poverty-stricken villages in Asia and Africa. It has provided more than 100,000 bikes to date and has sparked, in effect, a mini industrial revolution. As they pull into the parking garage by their apartment, F.K. quickly ushers Lincoln, Leah, and Julie, the family's assistant, into the car. The three are running late for a visit with the Dalai Lama, who is meeting students at Loyola as part of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate tour of Chicago this year. 132 michiganavemag.com A ChiCAgo Couple CrissCrosses the globe, leAving biCyCles in their wAke.