Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Used bikes can change people's lives


From California-

Have an old bike sitting around? Let the magicians at Adopt a Family Bike program restore it to pristine condition and then give it to someone who can really use it.

The Adopt-a-Family Bike program was started in 2002 by a handful of dads from St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in Danville after a parishioner requested hand-me-down bikes for needy children at the Monument Crisis Center in Concord. Men jumped in to refurbish the bikes, and the program has grown each year since, working out of donated retail spaces.

This year the group is collecting donated bikes each Saturday in November at its location in the Rose Garden, 730 Camino Ramon, Suites 140 and 160, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

"We ask a $5-$10 donation per bike to defray the costs of parts, helmets and locks," said coordinator Tania Hanson-De Young. "The bikes are repaired, cleaned, safety inspected, then distributed to numerous nonprofits in the East Bay for the holidays."

"In the last two years alone we had donated 500 bikes," said Hanson-De Young. "Volunteers are welcome, experience not necessary but appreciated."

The volunteers have a great time as they work from early November until mid December taking is used bicycles, fixing them up, and sending them north to be given to underprivileged residents of Contra Costa County. They serve as much-needed transportation for many, who have reported that their lives have been changed as they can pedal to work.


More here-

http://www.danvilleweekly.com/news/show_story.php?id=4514

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