Many children will get the new bike they wanted this Christmas thanks to kind-hearted readers of a council community magazine.
The phone never stopped ringing at a bike recycling charity after a feature appeared in Dudley Borough Council’s Dudley Together publication in the spring.
A total of 150 bikes flooded into the City Can Cycle workshop after the feature appeared, and staff are hoping to have many of them refurbished and passed on to those who need them in time for Christmas.
John Lane set up the recycling scheme five years ago after finding an old child’s bike abandoned in a skip. The scheme is now a thriving community workshop run by the Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme, which is an arm of
Community Service Volunteers. RSVP allows retired and older people to use their experience and time even though they are no longer at work.
John said: “After the story appeared in Dudley Together the phone didn’t stop ringing. To date we have had 150 old bikes offered to us to refurbish. It means we can get a lot of cycles ready for Christmas and hopefully make a lot of children very happy.”
John and his volunteers refurbish the bikes in a workshop based in a former school in Sycamore Green on the Old Park Farm estate. They restore bikes and then hand them over to charities like Barnardo’s.
They also have a white board in the workshop containing a list of names of those who need bikes. People in need can range from those who have had their bikes stolen to families who are struggling financially.