Riding On

O’s Cool Bike Ride & Walk Funds Balance Bikes, Memorial Scholarships

Heather Lewis remembers the phrase her son, Owen, would say whenever he saw his daddy, Onick, return from training for a triathlon.

“Daddy, I want to ride a cool bike like you.”

Owen had mastered a balance bicycle — a toddler bike without pedals — and rode so fast that Onick had to run to keep up with him.

Tragically, Owen Wayne Lewis lived to be only 2½ years old, dying suddenly on April 28, 2022, from lymphocytic myocarditis, a rare inflammation of heart muscle caused by a buildup of white blood cells. However, Owen’s presence is still felt.

In May 2022, his parents founded O’s Cool Bike Foundation, a nonprofit to honor his life. The organization donates balance bikes to Head Start programs and provides a scholarship at Troy University, where Onick and Heather are both professors.

“We want people to still get to know Owen, to embrace his personality, and to keep his memory alive,” Heather says. “After his sudden passing, we knew that we needed to share Owen’s love of bike riding with other young children and allow him to ride on forever through them.”

Pedaling With Purpose

To accomplish that, the foundation’s signature event, the third annual O’s Cool Bike Ride and Walk, is scheduled for April 26 at Troy University to coincide with the Saturday closest to Owen’s passing.

“We’re excited more and more people register every year,” Heather says. In 2023, 181 participated. Last year, 230 registered, and they’re hoping for at least 250 people to show up this year.

With money raised at the ride, along with sponsorships and grants from local businesses, the foundation has donated 180 helmets and balance bikes to Organized Community Action Program Head Start programs in 6 Southeastern Alabama counties.

The foundation is also working to endow the Owen Wayne Lewis Memorial Scholarship, given to first-generation Troy University students majoring in social work and human services or seeking a degree in hospitality, tourism and event management. Onick is the director of the Bachelor of Social Work program, while Heather is an associate professor of hospitality, tourism, and event management classes.

O’s Cool Bike Ride and Walk is a real-world lesson for Heather’s students, who develop and plan the event as part of an event management class at Troy University.

“It’s a family-friendly event with everything we do focusing on what Owen loved — riding his balance bike, bounce houses and dinosaurs,” she says.

The event’s 5 routes, named for Owen’s favorite dinosaurs, vary in length — the 64-mile T-Rex Tour, the 45-mile Stegosaurus Stomp, the 34-mile Triceratops Trek, the 1.2-mile Raptor Trot/Ride, and the Little T-Rex Ride, which is designed for the youngest riders. All routes start on campus with longer distances traveling through Troy and winding throughout Pike County. A virtual option is offered for those unable to attend in person.

Owen’s Lessons

Heather says Owen had a loving, vivacious personality and captivated everyone he met.

“His sudden death changed how we look at life,” she says. “He reminds us to embrace and enjoy little things every day because we’re not promised tomorrow.”

As Onick says, Owen taught them that “it’s important to live life every day.”

They tell their daughters — Aubrey Grace, 2, and 3-year-old Eden — about Owen and how he was “quick to smile, quick to love and quick to learn,” Heather says.

“He loved the outdoors, especially going for rides on his ‘cool’ bike with his daddy, and often had to be bribed with fruit snacks to return home,” she says.

Owen was born on October 17, 2019, and he received his balance bike for his first Christmas.

“By the time he was 17 months old, he was riding his balance bike,” Heather says. “Just a week before his passing, he was so comfortable on his bike that his daddy was running behind to keep up as he would pick up his feet to glide along and go as fast as he could. We’re sure he would have been riding a regular pedal bike before he turned 3.”

Heather says they are grateful to the students, volunteers, local businesses, and campus and community organizations for supporting O’s Cool Bike Ride and Walk and the foundation, enabling Owen to live on.

Their grief, however, is ongoing.

“Every day is different, and some days we’re comforted in unusual ways,” she says. “On rough days, sometimes reassuring things will happen randomly that allow us to know he is still with us. It is usually him allowing us to find his name on random things — a discarded name tag on the ground or on the license plate of a vehicle stopped at a stoplight in front of us.”