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If you’re sick of your bike, give it to a refugee.
College of Southern Idaho honors students have initiated an effort to collect new and used bicycles for people served by the CSI Refugee Center — many of whom have no other mode of transportation once they arrive here.
The effort will involve help from the Twin Falls Rotary Club, and Spoke and Wheel Bike Shop has agreed to volunteer time repairing and tuning up donated bicycles.
“Our hope and goal is basically to get new and gently used bikes from the community and find them a new home where they’ll be treasured,” said Michelle Pospichal, the center’s match-grant coordinator. “It’s the only way some of the refugees have of getting to work or school.”
The center served 365 refugees last year and expects to serve 300 to 400 this year, Pospichal said. She emphasized that many of them are families and that the kids usually want bikes.
“We give out one bike per family when they come. That’s in our budget — part of getting them an apartment, basic supplies, a few days of food — but it doesn’t allow us to get bikes for the kids, and they usually want them, so they can play and ride around just like other kids,” Pospichal said.
She didn’t want to put a number on how many donations the center needs, but as of now, they don’t have any.
“We’d like to have bikes for mom and dad and some for the kids … I have no idea what to expect, so we’ll see.”
For more information, contact the Refugee Center at 208-736-2166.