When a careless decision cost a Sherley Hall resident his bike late last semester, a resident assistant decided to work a little magic.

Edwin Jimenez, a first-year engineering major, said he was running late one day and parked his bike near the Sid. W Richardson Building without locking it.  

“It was dumb I didn’t lock it,” Jimenez said. “I was pretty much asking for my bike to be stolen.”

Jimenez said all he could do was make the best of the situation because he couldn’t afford to buy a new bike.

“I’m pretty optimistic,” he said. “When I figured my bike was stolen for good, I decided I’ll just grow bigger calves from walking.”

R.A. Erick Andrade said he wanted to help Jimenez as soon as he realized Jimenez was not riding his bike every day.

“I felt bad for him because I saw him ride his bike to class, to visit friends and to go off campus,” Andrade said. “He’s had a rough semester and the stolen bike didn’t make it any easier.”

Andrade said he wanted to use a portion of Sherley’s “magic money” to buy his resident a new bike.

Magic money is an allocated budget in every dorm to help students who are going through challenging times and who are in need of things, Andrade said.

Sherley’s magic money wasn’t enough to buy a decent bike, Andrade said. So he told the Sherley staff “if all 15 staff members donated $7 or $8, Jimenez could receive a bike that could last him a while.”

He said he was only expecting $60, but the staff raised $250 by the end of the week.

Andrade and Sherley’s hall director took the money to WalMart and polled the Sherley staff to vote on their favorite bike, he said. The majority of the staff liked the black mountain bike.

A week later, the Sherley staff surprised Jimenez with a new bike in the dorm lobby, Andrade said.

“This was one of the nicest things people have done for me,” Jimenez said. “TCU is a family and it’s so satisfying to know people who don’t even have to care for me did.”

Andrade said moments like this is why he is an R.A. for first-year students.

“The opportunities this job gives me to love and care on people is limitless,” he said. “I have tools to give people a light at the end of a tunnel.”
Jimenez said because of the magic and love from his R.A.s he now doesn’t have to wake up so early to walk to class. One day, he hopes to use his cycling skills to compete in an Ironman competition.