Working Bikes up and rolling in Kenosha
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Working Bikes up and rolling
8/19/07
Volunteer program repairs bicycles for charitable use
GARY J. KUNICH
Some were rusted shells of their former glory - a bent rim here, chipped paint and flat tire there - and others looked like they came from a different era before Game Boys, when kids put baseball cards in the spokes and sped through town.
Others were sleek as the day they first came home from the store. Some were renewed back to original glory. Others, too far gone, were cannibalized and used for parts.
Working with nearly 40 bikes in all, volunteers from the new group Working Bikes-Kenosha were busy Saturday at the Alford Park warehouse getting greasy, dirty, turning wrenches, replacing seats, oiling chains and making them all look as good as possible for a local program just in its infancy.
Many of the "fleet," as Kate Keener called them, will be used at six elementary schools throughout Kenosha this year for a 10-hour bike program called "Safe Route to School."
But Keener, whose eyes glow as she describes the project, has bigger plans than that - turning it into a program where students can earn free, used bikes for good grades and good citizenship, and a city bike program where people can pick up a bike in one location, tour around town, and drop it off somewhere else.
Still others will eventually be donated to the Chicago Working Bikes organization, where bicycles are packaged and sent to poor, developing countries where they're used for transportation, cargo or emergency vehicles.
"Today's our first day, and we've got a lot of plans," she said.
The Working Bikes organization started seven years ago in Chicago with Lee Ravenscroft, who start fixing up bikes and shipping them overseas to places such as Tanzania and Angola.
"What we do is save marriages," he joked. "My wife said, 'Do something with the bikes. They go or you go.' We'll take any kinds of bikes. I hate to see stuff like this go to waste or get melted down, when so many people can use them."
So far Working Bikes has shipped more than 5,000 bikes to developing countries and given away 1,000 bikes to U.S. residents.
Keener, who used to live in Chicago, met Ravenscroft because her son, Mike, and his son, Lee, were best friends.
"Lee was my surrogate son on weekends. He was like family while his dad was busy crating up bikes (to be sent overseas)," she said.
After she and her family moved to Kenosha three years ago, she decided to try to bring the program north. Ravenscroft and other volunteers from Chicago came to Kenosha Saturday to get the program rolling.
Local volunteer Debbie Paulino liked what she heard about the program and wanted to lend a hand.
"It's giving to people who are at a disadvantage in places like Angola and Central America who might have to get to work 20 miles or five miles away, and they don't have cars," she said. "It's not like it is over here. It's a necessity. A bike is what they need to live."
Keener said the first step of starting the Kenosha branch was to get a planning grant from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. That will provide an instructor to teach the safe bike program to fifth-graders at Jeffery, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Vernon, Somers and Harvey elementary schools, and may expand to other schools the following year.
Keener, who helped start the first Bloomin' Days in Kenosha to renew interest in businesses around the lakefront earlier this year, said having a citywide green bike program is the next step.
"We'd like to have that started by next spring so more people can ride around and see our gorgeous lakefront," she said. "Maybe they could pick up a bike on Simmons Island and drop it off at one of the libraries."
Other bikes, and bike parts, will be donated to the Chicago program so they can go overseas.
But in order for that to happen, Working Bikes-Kenosha needs bikes. Through an arrangement with the city, the group works out of the Alford Park warehouse, 1885 Sheridan Road, every Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., while the weather stays warm.
Anyone can drop off bikes during that time, and others can come by to work on the bikes. She said others who need to meet community service requirements are also welcome.
After putting word in the Kenosha News about the program, Keener said she found out something fast.
"People read their paper early," she laughed. "I was getting calls at 7 in the morning."
When the volunteer crew showed up at the warehouse at 10:30 a.m., there was already a child's bike leaning against the gate. Others, such as Linda Young - who brought in a sleek, blue 10-speed - came by throughout the day.
"Oh, it's at least 20 years old," said Young, who rode it up to a couple of years ago when the front rim got bent. "It's in good shape except for that. I think this is an outstanding program for people overseas and the community."
