When the Talawanda School District announced it had eliminated school bus routes for many children due to budget concerns, one local resident saw an opportunity to do good.
Vilppu Anttila has given about a dozen Talawanda students free bikes from his repair shop since he heard about the lack of busing for students this school year.
In August, Anttila posted an announcement on Facebook offering to give bikes away to Talawanda students. The post got roughly 400 reactions and comments.
Once he made the Facebook post, community members also started donating bikes to be fixed up and given away to students in need. The Fairfield Police Department donated 10 bicycles to Anttila’s repair shop instead of selling them in a public auction.
“When I heard he was giving out free bikes, I thought it was super awesome because there are a lot of kids in Oxford who don’t get around town because they don’t have an easily accessible way,” said Lauren Anderson, a ninth-grader at Talawanda. Lauren and her two siblings all received bikes from Anttila.
Lauren said she uses her bike for a 15 minute bike ride to work at McDonald’s some days after school.
Things would be very different for her if she didn’t have her bike, she said. She would have to spend a lot more time getting to work, she said.
Anttila, who is originally from Finland, started working with bikes in 2014 while he was an international student at Miami. Since January 2022, he’s operated a custom furniture business called Tree to Table.
His bike repair operation sprang to life during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anttila sells bikes from his garage in Harvest Court. He hesitates to call the shop a business but prefers to refer to it as “a hobby/ministry of community outreach.” The main goal is to support the local community, he said.
“I have a bug in me for ministry, and I feel like I’m actually helping to solve a problem,” Anttila said. “This was God’s idea. I look back and I can’t take any credit for any of the good I’ve done in my life.”
He said he started giving bikes to families so they could give them to kids as Christmas gifts a few years ago. Anttila said he finds joy in meeting new people and the bike shop brings people that he never would’ve met to his home.
“The beauty of running a local business is that it allows me to be connected to the community in a way that otherwise I never would be,” Anttila said.
Jaydence Roark, a seventh-grader, said that the bike that Anttila gave her allows her to participate in the theater club after school, which meets twice a week. Because of her parents’ work schedules, she would have a hard time getting home from school those days, she said. She lives about two miles away from school and it takes her roughly 15 minutes to bike from home.
“When I ride my bike, I love the feeling of the wind on my face, and I love the idea of having my own personal kind of car,” she said.
Anttila still has more donation bikes available for Talawanda students in need of one. Learn more here.
