3-year-old bikes 200 km in one month to raise money for kids with cancer
Kolten Davis from Okotoks has already raised more than $4,300
Photo by:
Tasha Davis
Kolten Davis, a 3-year-old cyclist, completed an impressive August cycling challenge. Riding a 12” bike, the Okotoks, Alta. resident rode a total of 200 km on local streets, saddling up every day to ride 8-10 km with his parents Tasha Davis and Matthew Davis.
About seven years ago, Kolten’s cousin Brooklyn was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a type of eye cancer that typically affects young children. At the age of four she had her eye removed, an experience Tasha said was traumatic for the whole family. Although she made a full recovery, Kolten and his family decided they wanted to help raise money for other kids in her situation.
The Great Cycle Challenge
At the end of July Kolten had an accident requiring stitches on his head, but he begged his mom to let him ride. Tasha finally gave him the go-ahead several days after he got the stitches and he has been riding every day since.
The Great Cycle Challenge has participants set a distance target for the month of August. As he planned on riding 200km, Kolten chose $200 as his fundraising goal, what he thought was a big amount.
Soon he became known in Okotoks for riding around town and other began to join him on his rides. Bikers are Buddies, a motorcycle group joined him for a 5km ride, members of the Calgary BMX club and, on his last day, Batman himself joined Kolten for his final 5km.
Kolten has easily succeeded in distilling cycling to its essence: “It’s fun,” he says, when asked about riding.
As of Sept. 1, he’s fundraised more than $4,500 for the SickKids Garron Family Cancer Centre.
“During times like these it’s very encouraging to hear that if a 3 year old can pedal that far on a 12” bike and raise over $4500,” says Tara. “It’s truly remarkable what this 3 year old has done and how much our community has gotten together to help him. Hopefully it will bring other kids as well as adults to the table to help raise Awareness next year!”
You can donate to the Great Cycle Challenge on Kolten’s fundraising page
