When kids receive a set of wheels – a bike, that is – from a local holiday gift giveaway, the Texas Medical Association’s Hard Hats for Little Heads is here to help you provide the helmet. As the season of giving approaches, pairing helmets with bikes given through local toy distributions is an easy way to spread joy and safety to local children.
Any TMA Family member can purchase helmets. When you do so, TMA boosts your giving power with a match of helmets (equal match up to 50). Helmets cost $9.35 each (including shipping). TMA also offers free educational materials in English and Spanish to support your event.
Joshua family physician J. Mike White, MD, has supported an annual holiday bike giveaway in Mansfield, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, for a number of years.
“Hard Hats has been a great benefit in our community as we have joined Bikes for Angels,” Dr. White said, referring to a local bike giveaway program. “Each year we give away 300 bicycles and pair that with our TMA Hard Hats. What a blessing to pair safety with fun.”
Some of the helmets for Bikes for Angels have come through the Texas Academy of Family Physicians (TAFP), which provides helmets for family physician-hosted giveaways. TAFP pays for 25 helmets per giveaway, and TMA matches with 25 helmets.
Since 2010, the Harris County Medical Society Alliance has given helmets in conjunction with CYCLE, an organization dedicated to improving literacy across the Greater Houston area by giving children bikes for achieving their academic goals. Alliance members also are usually on hand at one of the participating schools to fit helmets during the annual giveaway day in December.
“Alliance members who have participated find great satisfaction that we are helping reward the children for their hard work and that we’re helping protect them from injury in the event of a bike accident,” said Peggy Rittenhouse, an alliance member and coordinator of the CYCLE project.
Whether this is your first or annual holiday helmet giveaway, start planning now. To receive an order packet, email Tammy Wishard, TMA outreach coordinator, or call her at (512) 370-1470.
Hard Hats for Little Heads is supported in 2021 with a grant from the TMA Foundation with major support from an anonymous TMA/TMA Alliance member donor couple.
Tammy Wishard
Account Manager, Division of Communications and Marketing
(512) 370-1470