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February 23, 2010
Immokalee residents get free bikes thanks to
By SARAH DONOVAN
Along with roughly 150 other Immokalee community members of all ages
that came to the
“When I go with some people to the park, we always ride bikes, and some
of them don’t have any,” said Nixon, a fourth-grade student at the
Nixon has future plans for the bike too.
“We can put it away, and when (my little brother) grows up, he can start
riding it,” Nixon said of his 2-year-old brother, Marvin Perez.
This is the second year that Annie Nachtscheim has teamed up with other
Sanibel residents, the Sanibel Bicycle Club and Billy’s Rentals — a
bicycle rental business in Sanibel — to organize a used bicycle donation
for the residents of Immokalee.
“You saw that they really needed these bikes and it made you feel really
good,” said Nachtscheim, who was helping distribute bikes in the
morning. “What’s amazing to me is the poverty that’s (about) 45 miles
away from Sanibel.”
With roughly 22 miles of bike paths, bicycling is a popular leisure
activity on
“Bicycling is a big deal here, and a lot of people move to Sanibel
because of the bike trails,” said Patti Sousa, former president of the
roughly 250-member Sanibel Bicycle Club.
However, in Immokalee, many of the residents use bikes as their only
mode of transportation.
“It’s just really, really special to see the results of the efforts and
to see the smiles on those men’s faces,” said Sousa, who helped
distribute bicycles. “It’s really nice to know that we can do something
to help somebody.”
Billy’s Rentals was a drop off point for donations, while Redlands
Christian Migrant Association in Immokalee — a nonprofit child care
provider for migrant farmworkers and rural, low-income families
throughout Florida — contacted social service agencies to give out
coupons, which were redeemable for one bicycle.
Along with whole bicycles, Immokalee residents could take home bike
helmets, seats, baby seat attachments, wheels, baskets and pedals. Many
of the roughly 30 bikes that were left behind at the end of the day were
rusty or were missing wheels, but Marcelino Velasquez saw that as an
advantage.
“If I get one of these older bikes, then maybe no one will want to steal
it,” Velasquez said in Spanish. Velasquez’s old bike was stolen a couple
of weeks ago, and he needs a new one to get him to and from work. He
said the only bike he has right now is a small children’s bike.
“If I find someone else who needs the bike more than me, then I will
gladly share it with them,” said Velasquez, who picked out a red bike
with a blue, metal handlebar basket on the front. He initially came to
get a bicycle for his 3-year-old son, Elmer, but there were only four
out of the initial 30 children’s bikes left at the end of the day.
Ramiro Perales, who is a mechanic, used to walk roughly two miles to get
to work every day.
“I had to get up early in the morning just to go to work,” said Perales,
who got a blue Panasonic bicycle on Tuesday. Like many of the other
people who got a bike, Perales did not have a coupon and heard about the
distribution on the radio.
Gloria Padilla, area coordinator for the Redlands Christian Migrant
Association, helped hand out bicycles all day and said that everyone was
really excited that they were giving the bikes away to the whole
community.
“The bikes just got here this morning, and we’ve been handing them out
since
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