A South Carolina elementary school teacher raised over $80,000 so every child at her school could have a bicycle.
Katie Blomquist is a first grade teacher at Pepperhill Elementary School and came up with the idea after hearing a student wanting a bike but couldn't afford it.
"I had no idea what I was getting into...and it became a thousand times more amazing than I ever dreamed. I didn't really think about how much would go into it. I just thought, 'Let me see if I can do this' ... I wanted to make family memories."
She created a GoFundMe page last September and since then more than 1,000 people gave to the campaign.
"It just took off...when I say community, that started as just Charleston, then grew to our country as a community. One person from France and one person from Australia also donated ... It's just amazing!"
During the seven month inception of her plan, Blomquist partnered with local bike shop Affordabike helping to design and pick the colors for the custom bicycles.
Affordabike created 550 bikes, along with helmets and locks for each student and Radio Flyer donated 100 tricycles for the school's younger students.
Blomquist has also founded her own nonprofit "Going Places" with the mission of spreading joy to as many students as possible.
"I never ever in a million years thought I would be someone — I get so emotional talking about this all the time — I never thought I would be someone who could actually make a difference or make a change...I just thought this would be a nice thing to do. I had no idea that this is what it was gonna turn into."