How an IBM Data Specialist is pushing kids to explore one bike at a time

By Miles Dwyer

Every individual pursues success and happiness differently. For many, it’s pursued by grasping for better jobs, cars, and houses on the never-ending quest to top the social ladder. For others, happiness is embodied on the face of the kid pedaling manically as his friends from down the block aimlessly chase him in a game that will never end. For Seamus Galvin, the Co-Founder of CycleService, part of success is putting that look on kids' faces, giving them the “sense of adventure” he had growing up in Upstate New York.

Galvin is a 23-year old data specialist for IBM living in his hometown of East Aurora, a village outside of Buffalo. In the fall of 2022, Lucas Beyer, an old friend of Galvin’s, reached out asking for help starting a non-profit organization that would provide bicycles to underprivileged youth across the US.

Galvin was busy finishing school at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and preparing to start at IBM, but he offered to help Beyer get off the ground, thinking he’d be helping intermittently. Quickly, Galvin was engrossed, facing the seemingly impossible task of carving out space in a day for his new role as a Co-Founder of CycleService. 

“I'm passionate about problem solving,” Galvin says.

In May 2023, CycleService sent a team of riders to California where they began a cycling trip across the country. In four cities along their trail, CycleService held community events to distribute bikes to kids who couldn’t have otherwise afforded them. 

Flying the team from city to city would’ve been more cost-effective for CycleService than their transcontinental bike trip, but for Galvin, pedaling from coast to coast helps instill the sense of adventure in the kids they serve.

“I think that yearning for exploration is something we're constantly seeing less and less of,” Galvin said. “With iPads, phones, and computers, there's just not enough kids getting outside, and I think that's something that we hope to kind of change — on the level we can.”

The importance of serving those in need was imparted to Galvin and his brothers, Kieran and Evan, by their parents growing up, especially their mother, Jodi. The three brothers were after-school regulars at their local Boys and Girls Club. Now, Galvin sits on the board of a neighboring Boys and Girls Club — with the goal of serving others the way his mentors once served him.

“He’s one of the most caring people I know,” Kieran Galvin, Seamus’s younger brother, said. “That goes back to us being on the playground together when we were like two and four, and he always was the first one to lend me a hand to pick me up.”

Galvin wasn’t part of the riding team, but after holding the last event of the summer in Buffalo, he finally felt the full weight of CycleService’s pursuit.

“When it finished and the last kid left, I just took a second to take it all in. It was amazing just to think, ‘here’s 50 kids who just showed up, and got to walk away with their new ride.’”

CycleService plans to dip their bike tubes in both oceans again in 2025. This time, they’re looking to improve the durability of the bikes they provide and include the kids they serve in parts of their cross-country adventure, hoping to add longevity to their mission.

“Maybe someday down the line, one of the people who we gave a bike to is doing the ride,” Galvin said. 

“That’s the dream full circle.”