It seems fitting that Big Boi once rapped he was “cooler than a polar bear’s toenail,” because his holiday gift-giving skills would make him MVP on Team Santa at the North Pole.
On Monday, little more than two weeks before Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hannukah commence, the legendary emcee made stops at two metro Atlanta middle schools to dole out free bikes for students.
Big Boi was taking part in a program from the nonprofit Bear Strong, which is in its second year of rewarding metro area students for achievement and strong attendance with bikes by high-performance cycle maker Specialized. Bear Strong was started by music executive and College Park native Courtney “Bear” Sills, in an effort to promote positive physical and mental development for young Black men.
This year, students at Bear Creek Middle School in Fairburn and KIPP WAYS Academy in northwest Atlanta were chosen to receive 10 Specialized Rockhopper Sport bikes, each with a retail value of $750.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Joking that Sills “muscled” him into taking part, Big Boi said doing work with his own youth-focused nonprofit, Big Kidz Foundation, motivated him to help one of his longtime industry peers.
“I always do my thing with the community — it’s a great partnership,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Big Boi noted that Sills, also a cyclist, gifted him with motorized bikes he admittedly hadn’t gotten a chance to ride yet. When Sills later approached him about doing the activation, the Grammy winner and prolific side hustler didn’t hesitate.
“He was like, ‘Let’s go give the kids some bikes,’” Big Boi said, “and I was like, ‘Hell yeah!’”
In addition to being a part of Specialized’s annual Gift the Ride campaign, Bear Strong’s bike giveaway is also a partnership with Senoia Bicycle shop and community advocate Travis Barber. The inaugural edition featured rapper and activist Killer Mike.
Sills is a member the Atlanta-based, Black-led Bonafide Cycle Club Riders. Whereas Bonafide encourages health and wellness for adults via cycling, Sills hopes this holiday program and others like it can do the same for young people.
“It’s important for our children to be mentally, spiritually and physically in good shape and good condition in order to even want to come to school and learn, come to school and be good people, come to school and be healthy in a healthy environment and healthy mindset,” he said.
To help ensure bikes found their way to kids in need, Sills enlisted the help of Barber. Barber’s organization, 1 Mo ?, provides mentoring services to metro elementary and middle schools. It’s a calling, Barber said, that came to him after spending 10 years in prison. . He leverages his relationships with schools to help Sills and his partners deliver bikes.
Barber said he understand the importance of a program like this one all too well. “It’s so important because it curbs crime,” he said. “It gives the idle brains a positive playground and a structured goal setting.”
The bike giveaway is also part of an ongoing effort from Specialized to enlist celebrities in future programming. Known for making bikes appreciated by Tour de France riders, the California-based company views Atlanta and collaborating with its creative community as a way to grow on the East Coast, said Tony Mueckl, brand development manager.
A native of Buffalo who moved to Atlanta two years ago, Mueckl said it was cool to watch Big Boi, one-half of one of his all-time favorite music groups, get excited about a bicycle. “We all rode bikes as a kid, and to give these bikes back to kids as an adult is just absolutely amazing,” he said.
Kids didn’t just get a nice bike, they also received hygiene bags with extra deodorant, toothpaste and other toiletries, a nod to Barber’s work teaching life skills such as grooming.
At Bear Creek, Big Boi explained to students how he, Sills and the team discussed which kids would get bikes. A former performing arts magnet student at Tri-Cities High School before forming Outkast, Big Boi stressed the importance of attendance and showing up.
“It’s hard to go to school every day, but to go every day and not miss a day, that’s something special,” he said. “You can go wherever you want in life. I’m a living testament of that.”
Regardless of wherever the road ahead leads these youth, Sills knows that exposing them to activities such as cycling and providing the means to do so is crucial. It’s why he wants this annual event to continue.
“We want the spirit of the child to be happy,” he said. “That’s what cycling has done in my life and thousands of other lives in Atlanta.”
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