Only on Bainbridge Island? Well, not necessarily, but the island seems to be a breeding ground for people who get involved in community service. Learning to care for others and to give back to community is an extremely rewarding endeavor, especially if the recipient is young and impressionable. Take, for example, the experience of Maria Mason and her son, Adrian, islanders who have enriched the lives of impoverished youth in the West African nation of Togo, simply by providing them bicycles.

As our story on the front page of today’s edition details, some 1,200 bikes are now on the way to Togo, where they will be used by young people who need transportation in order to continue their education. It’s the second bike expedition organized by the Masons and Togo native Olowo-n’djo Tchala, whose Olympia-based skin-care company has shared its proceeds to help pay for delivery (three containers at about $10,000 each) of the bikes.

The Masons became involved because Maria, an archaeologist who has lived here since 1989, ran into Olowo-n’djo at a time when she was seeking a community service project for Adrian. She wanted him to get involved in an experience similar to the one she and her daughter, Brittain, had several years ago in Bolivia. Olowo-n’djo mentioned the need for bicycles in Togo and the idea took hold, leading to an eye-opening, bike-delivery trip to Togo two years ago.

Maria believes the project would never have gotten off the ground if it wasn’t for the generosity of islanders and others living in Kitsap County. All you need to do, she says, is tell them what you are doing and who benefits and they often respond enthusiastically. Primarily through fund-raising drives, she estimates that as many as 700 bikes were donated on the island during the last three years.

The experience has been invaluable for Adrian, primarily because he was involved in every aspect of a large, complicated project. He collected, repaired and packed the bicycles; worked with Togo government officials to allow the project to go forward; helped deliver the product in Togo; and, most important, saw first-hand the result of what he and others had done. There’s nothing like being surrounded by 300 people who are overjoyed and appreciative of your efforts to help them.

“An experience like that grounds you,” says Maria. “He came back a different person. We had no idea what we were getting into in Togo. These people have nothing. We took toys with us and we realized they didn’t even know what a toy is. For Adrian, it was great for him to go through the entire cycle.”

Adrian won’t be able to complete the cycle this time since he’s now a junior at Colgate University, but Maria and Brittain will meet the containers in Togo next month. They also will be accompanied by Olowo-n’djo, who, along with his wife, has been instrumental in starting a medical clinic in Togo that targets the care of pregnant women. He said hundreds of thousands of West African women die each year from complications of giving birth.

Maria believes it’s been great for her family just to be involved with Olowo-n’djo, who came to this country with a sixth-grade education and eventually graduated from the University of California-Davis. “It’s people like that, people who give back to their roots after going out in the world and finding their way, that you want your children to be around,” she says. “He’s a wonderful person.”

Not everyone has the opportunity and direction that’s sometimes required for a person to discover how he or she can find themselves and a life path merely by helping people in need. Evidently, it also helps if you’ve grown up on Bainbridge Island.