Make Someone Smile: reCYCLE Bike Drive has Deep Roots
28 Nov 2012 |
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Ever wonder what to do with that still-working-but-no-longer-being-used bike? Here’s a chance to “do good” with those wheels.
On December 2, donate your gently used bikes to GreenTown for distribution to local families in need. The reCYCLE Bike Drive will be held from 10am-1pm at Egan and Blach Junior High Schools.
The bike drive began in 1997, while Los Altos Hills resident, Kathleen Santora was working with the Community Outreach Program at St. Nicholas School, which her son attended at the time. During the holidays, the program collected and distributed presents for families in need. Noting that many requested bikes, the bike drive was “spun out”, starting a tradition of organizing used bike drives for the needy. Over more than a decade, Santora estimates that the bike drives she organized collected and distributed 600 bikes for community families.
To bring the bike drive to the broader community, Santora approached GreenTown Los Altos with a proposal to chair a pilot bike drive last spring. Despite the rain, the event, which was held at Santa Rita last March, brought in 30 bikes of which 9 were distributed to local families. The remainder were delivered to community services agencies. This is the first year that Santora is chairing a holiday bike drive for GreenTown, carrying on the tradition she started at St. Nicholas 15 years ago.
Bike Enthusiasts Drive the Event
The drive is being organized by a team of bike enthusiasts at GreenTown. GreenTown’s team is passionate about fostering a shift to more bicycling in our community and hopes to collect and distribute 100 bikes this year.
With your help, we want to bring a smile to those who receive our recycled bikes this holiday season.
“GreenTown volunteers’ passion about bikes and recycling as means of helping our environment is married to a well-established program to deliver bikes to the needy,” says Santora. “The program dovetails nicely with GreenTown’s goals to use resources wisely, encourage environmentally healthy forms of transportation, reduce car-related pollution and congestion, and build community.”
And we all benefit from helping those in need. The GreenTown team’s goal is to get all those gently used bikes collecting dust in our garages into the hands of those in need.
Interested in helping out? Bring your “gently used” bikes, Sun. Dec. 2, 10AM-1PM to either Egan or Blach Junior HIgh Schools. Or volunteer that day, washing bikes, filling tires, and repairing bikes. This event is being co-sponsored by Acterra: Action for a Sustainable Earth, Good Karma Bikes and Silicon Valley Bike Exchange.
