YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Kritika Rai used to walk to the Western Reserve Transit Authority bus station or get a ride with a friend to get to work or anywhere else she wanted to go.
“I would just be waiting for somebody to give me a ride, expecting to get a ride,” said Rai, a Youngstown State University student from Nepal who arrived in the United States in August 2025. “I was not taking buses at that time because I would be scared, or I would not know what the schedule was, so it was hard for me to get around or use the buses.”
About a month ago, she connected with Thrive Mahoning Valley, a nonprofit organization at 854 Wilson Ave. that helps connect new and existing Valley residents to resources. Thrive provides bicycles to people who don’t have transportation.
Ariana Wyndham, Thrive’s program director, said that besides international students at YSU, those without transportation may include people who want to enter or return to the workforce, those released from incarceration, homeless people or those who share a vehicle with a large family.
“So it’s really just all kinds of people who are in this chapter of their lives where they need that support,” she said.
Rai, who’s studying environmental science and geography, learned about the bike program before she came to YSU. She was at home in Nepal, looking on her computer for housing near campus, and someone on the social media platform Reddit mentioned the Thrive program.
But with arriving at YSU, starting classes and adjusting to her new life, she forgot about the bike program.
“I remember one time I didn’t have service on my phone, and I had to walk all the way from campus to the West Side, and it was in January or February,” Rai said. “That was the moment I realized, Oh, I really need to do this. I really need a bike.”
She met Wyndham at a June Thrive cleanup event and received the bicycle a short time later.
To get to Thrive though, she had to walk from the main WRTA station downtown.
“It was a hot walk,” Rai recalled.
Thrive’s bike program started in 2022 when another agency called to see if Thrive could help a YSU student who lacked transportation. The student was walking from home to campus, carrying his violin.
“They were able to find somebody to donate a bike, and they fixed it up for him and gave it to him. And he used that as his main mode of transportation, along with the bus like Kritika,” Wyndham said. “And now he’s graduated and still playing violin, and he’s on our board now.”
Other people started reaching out about the bikes, and the program grew. Christopher Colón, Thrive executive director, found people who donated bikes. He took them to someone who fixed them, and then he stored them.
Later, a bicycle technician started volunteering at Thrive and fixing donated bicycles. Thrive also secured the Wilson Avenue building, giving the organization a place to store bicycles awaiting repair. With the volunteer bike technician working part time, Thrive gave away about 50 bikes. When the volunteer increased his hours last year, the organization distributed more than 100 bikes.
“And this year our goal is to hit 140 or more,” Wyndham said. “I think we’re close to 90 already this year, so I think we’ll go beyond 140 at this point.”
More volunteer technicians have come on board to help repair the bicycles, she said. Each bike recipient also gets a helmet, a bike lock and bicycle safety instructions.
Phillip Lawrence learned about the Thrive program through his parole officer. He picked up the bike from the organization in early July and uses it, along with WRTA buses, to get to doctor’s appointments and to attend to the needs of his disabled mother.
Before getting the bike, he walked or relied on others to take him where he needed to go. Those others weren’t always reliable, he said, often arriving late or not at all.
Lawrence said riding the bike saves him time.
“I get from the East Side to my house in like 20 minutes,” the South Side resident said. “I fly on that bike.”
He’s been especially glad to have the bike during the hot spells the past few weeks.
Rai, the YSU student from Nepal, said the bicycle affords her independence.
“I could go to get my medicine now. I can get to my work now. I can get to my friend’s,” she said. “And I’m really an overthinker, so I just take my bike – because I live so close to Mill Creek Park – I go to the bike trails and I just bike my heart out, and I always come back really fresh and great.”
Her new mode of transportation has made things easier for her too.
“I was really walking everywhere,” she said. “If it was within a 30-minute walk, I would be doing it. And yeah, it was hard before the bike.”
Pictured at top: Kritika Rai, a Youngstown State University student from Nepal.