After 11-year-old Dylan Leder learned that it was her favorite doorman’s motorcycle she had witnessed being stolen by three crooks during broad daylight outside her Upper West Side apartment, the big-hearted ballerina jumped into action and organized a fundraiser to buy a new bike.
The School of American Ballet student surpassed her initial goal of $8,500 and raised $11,000, enough to buy a brand-new bike for Nazar — the 20-year-old doorman who had to rely on his brother for a ride to work after his “baby” was stolen.
Nazar was in for the surprise of his life on Friday as a brand-new blue 2022 MT-07 Yamaha was waiting for him in the plaza of Waterline Square Park in Lincoln Square. Before the big reveal, Dylan said she felt amazing that she had surpassed her goal.
“We feel so happy that I was able to do something for someone else,” Dylan said. “Me and many other people think that he’s going to cry. He’s going to be so happy.”
Sure enough, when Nazar, accompanied by his brother and co-workers, who didn’t want to miss the happy moment, saw the bike, he was initially in disbelief, and then a big smile ran across his face.
Nazar admitted that he was caught entirely off-guard.
“It’s insane,” Nazar, who came to the United States from Ukraine as a youngster, said. “From the moment when the bike was stolen, I did lose faith to get another bike. We just came from a meeting, and I come outside; it’s unbelievable.”
Nazar shared that he wanted to buy a bike in 2021, but his mother put a stop to it. Not one to give up on his dream, Nazar finally bought his bike in April 2022.
“I had to bring my first motorcycle three hours away from Jersey all the way here,” Nazar said. “It was my first ride. Scared, but then it was just a thrill. It’s just the emotions that come with riding. It is just unexplainable.”
Nazar said he was devastated when crooks stole the bike he had saved up for. “Especially when you wanted it for so long. You enjoy it as much as you can, and it just gets stripped away,” Nazar said.
“But then this little child,” Nazar added, referring to Dylan Leder, “is out of this world. What she did is unbelievable.”
His brother Roman, who also works as a doorman, said he and Nazar didn’t have a clue that Dylan had organized the fundraiser to buy a new bike, and he only learned about the heart warming gesture five minutes before the big reveal.
“I found that out last minute when they told me, ‘Hey Roman, you’re going to go outside. Don’t tell Nazar, but in five minutes, he’s going to receive a new bike,'” Roman said. ” It’s really great.”
Sabrina Rahaman, the owner of Prospect Powersports in Brooklyn, delivered the bike with the help of her employee, Justin Falcon, and Damon Smith from MAD Transpo NYC, who provided the transportation of the motorcycle.
Rahaman said when Dylan’s mom Lisa Singer called her and told her the story about the fundraiser, she called Dylan a “little superstar.”
“We got more money. And then we got Yamaha involved, and we got Kawasaki involved, and we got Damon from MAD Transpo involved,” Rahaman said.
Yamaha donated $1,000 worth of bike accessories, and the female-owned dealership had a special gift for Dylan, an electric bicycle from Kawasaki.
Falcon, who also rides a motorcycle, said he wasn’t surprised that the bike was stolen since motorcycle theft “happens a lot,” but said there was “hope in this world,” referring to Dylan.
“To have someone, especially in this generation, to care so much for another being enough even to raise this large amount of money to buy them another motorcycle, it’s amazing,” Falcon said.
