Deputies in Florida stepped in to show some love to a boy in need of some TLC earlier this month.On Aug. 2, two deputies responded to Ernesto's home because he was depressed over the loss of his father and his bike had been stolen. The two Palm Beach County deputies then decided to work together and go in using their own money to buy Ernesto a brand new bike, called the "Monster Ripper."Watch the video above to see his priceless reaction.

WLWT viewers gave from their hearts, and it's making a difference.This week, WLWT introduced you to Randy Bowling of Hamilton. Bowling is disabled, and his bicycle is his only form of transportation to and from work at Walmart in Fairfield Township.Last weekend, his bicycle was stolen."Your news story was barely over on the TV. I was watching it when my phone started ringing," said David Hood, executive director of Serve City. "I knew immediately this had struck a cord ... That line that Randy said, 'This made my life harder,' it was the big thing that struck me, and I think people heard that and said this is not OK. We need to do something." Serve City is the organization that owns the apartments where Bowling lives.Knowing Bowling was taken care of thanks to generous gifts from WLWT viewers, Hood created a way for people to help others like Bowling."This is probably not the first time this has happened, and unfortunately, might not be the last time it happens, and so we are setting up a fund called a 'Bike Matching Fund,' Hood said.They're collecting bicycles, or preferably money, to offer residents as a matching fund."So, if they're able to come up with $50, we'll match $50 dollars for them to get a bike," Hood said. "Bikes around here are a major source of transportation for employment, for doctors appointments, for therapy, for addiction recovery, all of those things, getting around to those things are critical to our residents." Donations can be made here. Any donations that include "BIKE" in the memo will go toward bicycles and locks to those in need of transportation.https://www.classy.org/give/313609/#!/donation/checkout

HAMILTON, Ohio —

With his laces tied tightly, Randy Bowling said he's ready to walk to work if he has to.

The nearly four-mile trek each way — from his apartment in Hamilton to Walmart in Fairfield Township — isn't ideal for the 50-year-old, who is also disabled. Bowling suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was 16.

That's one of the reasons he bought a $157 bicycle a few months ago.

"It's the first bike I ever bought myself," Bowling said.

He was proud of it. Now, it's gone.

It was stolen from outside Party Mart Express in Hamilton Saturday night.

Store security video shows Bowling walking his bike close to the front doors after his shift at Walmart.

He's in the East Avenue store for less than a minute before a man rides up on another bike, grabs Bowling's bicycle and rides off with it.

Bowling walks out in disbelief.

"He's made my life harder," Bowling said.

Bowling lives alone at the Serve City apartments. He said he needs his job to pay bills, and the bus isn't always an option.

"When we had heard, it just broke our hearts. Our residents struggle with so many other life issues, to have something like this happen is a real challenge," said David Hood, executive director of Serve City.

Neighbor Brenda Stevens called what happened unacceptable in her neighborhood.

"It's just aggravating. I don't know why people do it. It's selfish," Stevens said.

Other neighbors have expressed frustration and support.

"There's a lot of people that care. If I had a bike, I'd give it to him," said neighbor Andrew Yeager.

Bowling said even though he should be angry, he'd rather talk to the guy who snatched his bike and help him get a job.

INDIANAPOLIS — The year 2020 was tough for many industries, but bicycle businesses are so busy that they're backlogged.

In Broad Ripple, Indiana, Jimmy Revard, owner of The Bike Line, said it was a year of firsts after 41 years of businesses.

“When the pandemic first presented itself, we were scared as anybody,” Revard said.

So, they prepared for the worst and found the best results.

"Craziness!" he said. "It's been the busiest year we've ever had by far."

He said they have been so busy that the store sold out of bikes.

“It started as COVID came on in the spring,” Revard said. And people have been buying bikes non-stop ever since.

“So they are trying to get outside, get exercise, get out of the house and cycling is a very safe way to do that,” Revard said.

Most of the bikes Revard and his team receive in the store are sold before they arrive.

“We’ve never had to back-order bikes before and now we have well over 1,000 bikes on back-order all of the time,” Revard said.

The bike store owner said customers are waiting up to one year for their bicycles.

Customers like Sherry Owensby, who ordered six bikes back in June, are still waiting for three more of those belted Christmas gifts.

“I was really shocked," Owensby said. "I really thought, you know, maybe it would be end of summer, you know, maybe couple months. But when he said Nov. 1, I was really shocked and then when we got to November, we called, they didn’t have any of them and we were like, ‘Oh, no.'"

“(It's) really hard to tell people that,” Revard said.

Revard attributed the delay to the pandemic.

“It’s the parts, manufacturers, it’s distribution, shipping, many many layers,” he said.

Now customers like Owensby are working on patience, not peddling, at least for a little while longer.

“They’re frustrated too, obviously want to get everything in right away for the clients, but it’s been really good," Owensby said. "They worked really well with us, and just kind like I said, waiting like we are."

This article was written by Megan Shinn for WRTV.

Scot Grossman and his team are finishing touches on this brand new, nearly two-mile stretch of trail that curves along Clear Creek Canyon in Colorado.

“It’s 65 miles, 5,600 vertical feet, going through multiple jurisdictions along the way. The biggest link to that 65 miles is Clear Creek Canyon, which we’re in right now,” Scot Grossman, the projects team supervisor at Jefferson County Open Space, said.

By the end of August, this part of the trail will be open for walking and biking.

“We finished about three miles in 2017; this is a mile and three quarters right now. We have funding for another three and a half miles, which will leave roughly a five-mile gap, and that's really where that federal money comes in,” Grossman said.

He has watched as segments of this 16.5-mile missing link on the Peaks to Plains trail project have come to life -- funded by state money, federal transportation dollars, and other grants.

“Big public projects like this, big capital projects, take money from all over. It can’t just be the local jurisdiction taking on something of statewide significance like this,” he said.

That’s where federal funding can play a role and where President Joe Biden’s proposed infrastructure plan might fill a gap.

“The federal jobs act is a huge one for us to be able to leverage the funding we do have, which is significant but not enough to finish something like this,” Grossman said.

And projects like this exist around the country.

“I bet all of you can think of a place in your neighborhood where you're like, ‘Oh, I can make that two-mile trip on my bike, except I have to cross that one road that feels very dangerous.’ Putting this kind of investment into biking and walking will help find a solution to things like that,” Caron Whitaker, Deputy Executive Director of the League of American Bicyclists, said.

Whitaker says the larger infrastructure package being discussed could help shift gears in how we travel.

“There's a lot of projects that are on the backlog that cities and towns and even states have wanted to do for a long time but just haven’t had the funding. So the infrastructure package would give them that funding,” Whitaker said.

The issue right now is that no one in the federal government has agreed on what should be in the plan that gets implemented.

“So there are competing bills in the Senate and the House, and there’s going to have to be some negotiation, and the bills look very different,” Nick Klein, an assistant professor at Cornell University in the department of city and regional planning, said.

Klein said it’s not clear whether this bill will be what we normally see for transportation policy or if it will be something different.

“In public opinion surveys, the American public wants to see a future with more walking, cycling, and transit. By and large, that’s what people want us to focus on,” Klein said.

“The infrastructure bill is very important because it sort of sets the agenda for where and how we’re going to spend billions and billions of dollars,” he said.

Back at the Peaks to Plains project, Piep van Heuven with nonprofit advocacy group Bicycle Colorado said projects like this couldn't be done without federal funding.

“We don't have a lot of detail yet on the infrastructure plan, but there are three very good indicators; one is that the funding of bicycling and walking is likely to increase, possibly double,” she explained. “And [the plan] also uses language like ‘fix it right,' which is a nod to Complete Streets or the philosophy that when you build a road or maintain a road, you want to do so for everybody. So that’s for people driving and biking and walking.”

Construction on this trail continues -- paving the way for what other user-friendly trails could look like moving forward.

“Having those federal dollars in focus to be able to complete things like this is enormous,” Grossman said.

“This is a great example of exactly the kind of bike and pedestrian multi-use path that we want. It’s the creme de la creme,” Van Heuven said.