Cooper Tunkle, 17, turned tragedy into triumph.
“There was someone in my school that was biking and then died when a car hit him, and he did not have a helmet,” Cooper recalled. “He was the inspiration.”
Shortly after that, in 2019, he founded Cooper’s Helmet Hero.
“I have biked a lot since I was really young, and I always wear a helmet because I fall a lot,” Cooper added.
He was just 13 when he started his endeavor.
“First I got money for my birthday, and I used the money to get helmets, and I gave the helmets away,” Cooper began. “Then I made a website, and people could donate to the website, and I started getting more and more.”
At first, he donated to local schools to give helmets to students who needed one. But he wanted to reach even more kids, so he teamed up with the Lipman Backpack Giveaway to donate helmets during their yearly backpack and bicycle giveaway.
This August during the Lipman Family Farms 13th annual giveaway and back to school event in Immokalee, they gave away 1,500 backpacks and 300 bicycles along with helmets donated by Cooper’s Helmet Hero. Jaime Weisinger, director of community relations at Lipman Family Farms, praised Cooper’s volunteer work.
“We really couldn’t pull off this size of an event without help from the community, and Cooper has a very like-minded giving spirit like we do,” Weisinger said. “Not only does he donate helmets, but he comes out to the event to help with fittings. He helps all of the families get ready to go back to school. He is a shining example of what it takes to make this event successful.”
Cooper says he just does it to keep people safe. He is still an avid bicycle rider and always wears a helmet when he rides, and he wants to make sure everyone else wears a helmet too.
“Ninety-five percent of people that die on a bike weren’t wearing a helmet,” Cooper said. “A lot of time when you don’t wear a helmet it is not safe at all.”
In 2021 there were 183 bicycle fatalities in Florida, from 6,399 crashes, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. In 2020 Florida had the highest rate in the nation of fatal bicycle accidents. According to the National Safety Council, one in every three nonfatal bicycling injuries is a head injury, over 80,000 a year nationwide.
Since he founded Cooper’s Helmet Hero, Cooper has given away more than 400 helmets.
He buys a variety of helmets in bulk from money donated to his charity and accepts donations of helmets.
“I was excited,” said his mother, Ashley, as she spoke about Cooper founding his own charity. “But I was curious about how he was going to make it happen. I was also super impressed by the community outpouring.”
When Cooper was a freshman at Naples High School, he took a digital design course and created the Cooper’s Helmet Hero slogan and logo.
“I made the website, and my mom put it on Facebook, and that is how it started,” Cooper recalled. “And for my birthday, I ask if people can donate to a charity.”
Cooper is now a senior at Naples High School. He hopes his brother Graham, who is sophomore, will take over the charity when Cooper leaves for college next year. For more information on Cooper’s group go to coopershelmethero.com