It can be said that the Kroger Co., the national grocery retail chain with headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, was instrumental in the start up of the TUKANDU Cycling Club. Here is how it happened.
In 1981, after working with students for a year at the Ohio State School for the Blind, and receiving a Master's degree in Teaching the Visually Impaired, an unamed Cincinnati resident decided that bike riding was a service our city needed to offer it visually impaired citizens. To get the wheels rolling, he wrote a grant to the Kroger company, which generously responded with a grant to purchase four Schwinn tandem bicycles. In the following years these bicycles were used by blind and visually impaired children and adults in the Cincinnati area for recreational rides and various cycling events.
In 1999, through the efforts of Terry Davis and Jim Cable, tandem cycling for blind and visually impaired people in the Cincinnati area was revived through the use of these Kroger donated tandems. Terry and Jim assumed the responsibility of maintaining these tandems and created what has become the highly successful 501(C)(3) organization of TUKANDU.
Since its beginnings, through the donation of funds and equipment, TUKANDU has managed to maintain and improve its fleet of tandems. It may be understood that it is a challenging task to keep all units operational. However, TUKANDU is constantly striving to maintain and upgrade its fleet and continues to seek out much needed donations for that purpose.
TUKANDU owes its beginnings to that original Kroger donation of the four Schwinn tandem bicycles. In recent years, It continued its support when TUKANDU was a major participant in tandem cycling fundraisers. Kroger supplied food and beverages for those rallies.
Thank you Kroger Co.
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