23/09/2026
BICYCLES ARE FOREVER: A BIG DAY FOR BIG ROCK CYCLING SCHOOL
PARYS, 22 September 2026
Bicycles are forever. They are the modern-day diamonds. They shine, they bring smiles, and they connect people.
Today is a particularly big day for the BIG ROCK Cycling School in Parys, as a 12-metre container packed with second-hand bicycles and cycling equipment arrives from the United States — bicycles that will soon find new lives, new roads and, most importantly, new riders in our community.
BIG ROCK Cycling School is a grassroots cycling project that teaches and enables children to experience the blessing of the bicycle — what Armenian-American writer William Saroyan famously called “the noblest invention of mankind.”
At BIG ROCK, schoolchildren between the ages of 5 and 18 from Parys, Tumahole, Schonkenville and surrounding communities learn much more than simply how to ride a bicycle. Classes focus on basic riding skills, fitness, confidence and the culture of cycling.
The school has access to its own mountain-bike skills track, maintained and sponsored by the Anatomic Sportswear Factory in Parys. Anatomic is also the mothership of the BIG ROCK project, coordinating volunteers and helping to fund the maintenance of the school’s bicycles.
Parys MultiSport Club serves as BIG ROCK’s officially affiliated Free State cycling club and provides the project with an important administrative and sporting backbone. BIG ROCK students also enjoy free access to Koedoeslaagte Trail Park, 12 km outside Parys.
Through the club and school, youngsters who develop a passion and talent for the sport are given opportunities to progress into competitive cycling. BIG ROCK already proudly boasts a number of cycling titles among its young riders.
BUT THERE IS NO CYCLING WITHOUT BICYCLES
Many BIG ROCK children are proud bicycle owners. Many others simply cannot afford a bicycle of their own.
The school began with a small collection of bicycles donated by private individuals. In 2022, the project received another 10 bicycles and helmets through a Free State Cycling Lottery-funded initiative. Those bicycles helped ignite what BIG ROCK has become today.
Then, in 2025, the project caught the attention of the Rotary Club of Parys. With the help of a video produced by Ian Berry, the BIG ROCK story reached a wider Rotary audience in South Africa.
The Rotary Club of Empangeni responded. The club is passionately involved in the distribution of donated bicycles in South Africa and connected BIG ROCK to an extraordinary international chain of generosity.
Behind the Empangeni Rotary bicycle programme stands the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek in Maryland, USA, where, with the involvement of Jonathan Warner and Steve Bamonti, bicycles are collected, packed and sent across the world to communities where they can make a difference.
In November last year, Rotary Empangeni helped BIG ROCK receive another 90 bicycles.
That contribution carried the project to a new level.
Today, 22 September 2026, it gets even bigger.
BIG ROCK is receiving an entire 12-metre container filled with second-hand bicycles and cycling equipment from the United States.
We don't yet know exactly how many bicycles are packed inside. Word has it that more than 500 bicycles can fit into a container of this size.
Whatever the final number, every bicycle represents possibility.
FOUR WAYS TO PUT BICYCLES TO WORK
The BIG ROCK project plans to put the bicycles to use across four main areas.
1) Transport: Many of the bicycles are practical commuter bikes. Promoting the bicycle as affordable, healthy and practical transport will be an important part of the project.
2) Tourism and recreation: Cruiser-style bicycles are perfectly suited to recreational riding and have exciting potential within Parys's tourism environment.
3) Sport and fitness: Mountain bikes and drop-handle road bicycles can introduce more people to cycling for exercise, adventure and organised sport.
4) Developing champions: BIG ROCK also intends to build and maintain a smaller fleet of higher-end sporting bicycles, giving dedicated young riders the opportunity to train and compete on equipment that might otherwise be beyond their reach.
A very special thank you goes to Sandra Uys from Rotary Parys, Andrew Killick and Fulvio Pace from Rotary Empangeni, and to everyone in South Africa and the United States who helped turn a collection of used bicycles into an extraordinary opportunity for our community.
BIG ROCKS. BRAVE RIDERS.
The “BIG ROCK” in our cycling school's name has a double meaning.
It refers first to the enormous meteorite that struck the Earth billions of years ago and shaped our beloved Vredefort Dome and the mountains surrounding Parys.
But it also refers to our children.
On a bicycle, every rider eventually meets a big rock — something difficult, intimidating or seemingly impossible standing in the trail ahead.
Our children learn to tackle those big rocks with equally big courage.
That is what BIG ROCK is ultimately about: not only teaching children to ride bicycles, but helping them discover where a bicycle can take them.
Whatever we do at BIG ROCK Cycling School:
WE GO BIG. AND WE ROCK!
