Cycling Fairy Leaves Gift for Urban Advocate

By CAROLYN SZCZEPANSKI

Kenneth Walker went out to get the mail and found two brand new bikes sitting on his front porch.

It was Christmas in July for a local cycling advocate, who woke up last week to find a pair of shiny, new toys on his front porch.

Three years ago, when his son, Christian, stood on the winners’ block at the Tour of Kansas City bike race, Kenneth Walker thought to himself, “My two sons aren’t the only African American kids in this city who could do this.” In 2005, though, Christian was the first black participant to claim victory in the decades’ old event.

Since then, Walker has been working to increase cycling in the urban core. He started the Major Taylor Foundation of Greater Kansas City in 2005, organizing education and rides for inner-city youth. After leaving that organization in March, he started work on a new Urban Kansas City Community of Cycling project. Just days after he put his new efforts online, an anonymous donor gave him a push in the right direction.