PNC Financial Services Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Rohr was reminded yet again that kids say the darnedest things.

After announcing yesterday that the PNC Foundation was donating 335 tricycles to early childhood education centers in southwestern Pennsylvania, he leaned over and asked 4-year-old Mackenzee Goonetilleke if she would like to take home the one she was riding.

"No, thank you," she said, drawing laughter from Mr. Rohr, members of the news media and PNC employees in the lobby of the PNC FirstSide Center, Downtown. There was more laughter when 4-year-old Cole Gaskill also declined.

When 4-year-old Melanie Ramierez accepted his offer, Mr. Rohr, a grandfather of five, gave her a thumbs-up and a big smile. He said the helmet she was wearing was one of 335 donated by Allegheny General Hospital. Melanie and her fellow cyclists attend the Council of Three Rivers American Indian Center Head Start program in Mount Oliver.

Mr. Rohr said the tricycle donation was made "to foster physical activity among families and young children [because] exercise is critical to their well-being." It's part of PNC's Grow Up Great program, "a 10-year, $100 million investment to help prepare children from birth to age 5 for success in school and life."

The gift of the tricycles, one for each of the 335 miles between Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., via the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal Towpath, was designed to celebrate the four PNC Legacy Trail Rides.

The first one, organized by Venture Outdoors, will depart Washington on Saturday and arrive in Pittsburgh on Oct. 4. A 24-hour relay ride will leave Washington about 1:30 p.m. Oct. 3 and catch up to the first group. They'll be joined by two community trail rides -- one pedaling in from the Hot Metal Bridge and the other from PNC FirstSide.

The combined groups, expected to attract several thousand riders, will head down the Boulevard of the Allies to help the city celebrate its 250th birthday and the re-opening of Point State Park. The celebration will include live entertainment and fireworks.