Bike re(Cycle) Helps Chicago Nonprofit to Give Bikes Away

CHICAGO, Illinois, April 7, 2008 (ENS) - If you have an unwanted old bike in your garage or storeroom, you could donate it to the Working Bikes Cooperative at the Bike re(Cycle) Chicago event next month and at Earth Day bike drives even before then. You'll be in good company.

This volunteer-run organization is dedicated to recycling bikes, supporting biking in Chicago and helping local and international projects in need of bikes.

The Bike re(Cycle) Chicago event is going on at Chase's West Lakeview branch at Ashland and Henderson on Saturday, May 3 and Sunday, May 4 between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm, making it easy to drop those old bikes off for people who really need them.

Trailside Museum's Earth Day Celebration will be hosting a bike drive. They will accept bikes between 10 am and 3 pm on Sunday the 20th and then between 9 am and 4 pm each day throughout the following week April 21-26.

Chicago Public Radio's Global Activism Expo is being held Wednesday, April 16 at the Broadway Armory, 5917 N. Broadway. With several appearances on Worldview, Working Bikes has been invited to attend.

The recycled bikes sparkle like new at the Working Bikes Cooperative warehouse. (Photo courtesy Working Bikes)

On April 19 and 20, St. George Church will again be holding its successful bike drive at 6707 W. 175th Street, Tinley Park.

Whole Foods Market in River Forest are sponsoring a bike drive for Working Bikes and offering advice on bike tune-ups in celebration of Earth Day. The drive is being held outside the store at 7245 W. Lake Street, River Forest, Illinois on April 20.

Working Bikes will restore all donated bikes to benefit their local and global community outreach programs. The nonprofit organization recovers landfill-bound bicycles, repairs them to working condition, and sells them to Chicagoans at a low cost in order to fund shipments of bicycles and bike parts to developing countries.

Working Bike's volunteers provide bicycles to charity organizations within Chicago and also ships bicycles to the Gulf Coast, Cuba, Guatemala, Ecuador, Africa and many other places of need.

In the countries to which Working Bikes ships, a bicycle can often mean the difference between work and unemployment, the organization says. The bicycle is the main means of vehicular transportation for most people and is used both for personal transportation and for carrying cargo.

Due to wage differences, Working Bikes explains, a bicycle worth $20 in Chicago can be worth the equivalent of $1,000 in Africa.

Each year Working Bikes gives away over 5,000 bicycles. It distributes about 500 bicycles and wheelchairs in the Chicago area - to city programs, refugees and day camps.

Their mission is to empower communities by engaging in activities that promote environmentalism, public heath, and human equality.

By recycling bicycles locally and delivering them to communities in need at low cost, the co-op is able to provide sustainable development within their partner communities.

For more information visit www.workingbike.org

Bike Chicago 2008 is presented by the Mayor's Office of Special Events and Chase in cooperation with Goose Island, Blue Cross Blue Shield, SRAM, Bally Total Fitness, NBC 5, 93XRT, Time Out Chicago, Hinckley Springs, Whole Foods, the Chicago Department of Transportation, Chicago Park District, Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, Chicago Police Department and the Messenger Service Association of Illinois.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.