Teen Triathlete's Nonprofit Has Donated Hundreds of Bikes and Taught Children to Ride
Seventeen-year-old Jonathan Thai of Georgia started the Pedal Forward Foundation after a community bike workshop closed.
A 17-year-old high school triathlete in Alpharetta, Georgia, has built a nonprofit that gives bicycles, helmets and free riding lessons to children whose families cannot afford them, Good News Network reported on October 14, 2026.
From a closed workshop to a charity
Jonathan Thai founded the Pedal Forward Foundation, a registered nonprofit, after a local REI store stopped hosting a community bike-riding workshop. The foundation's website says its aim is to give financially disadvantaged youth free opportunities to learn to ride and to donate bikes and helmets.
Per Good News Network, which drew on reporting by the Times of India and Points of Light, the group has:
- Raised more than $30,000
- Secured 400 donated bicycles and given out 500 helmets
- Held more than a dozen free clinics, each teaching about 30 to 45 children
- Opened chapters in New York and Tennessee
These figures are as reported by the outlets and have not been independently audited.
Why it matters
Thai told Points of Light that biking can look recreational, but "it can have such a big impact for a family that doesn't have access to transportation." Points of Light, an international volunteer nonprofit, honored him with an award.
What's next
Local groups including the YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs, the City of Roswell and the Georgia Department of Transportation have helped. Good News Network reports the foundation plans a charity cycling trip to Vietnam next year, where Thai's parents grew up.