Elmhurst teens collect bikes for kids who need them
One item that undoubtedly makes it to the top of many youngsters' wish lists is that two-wheeled wonder that delivers freedom, adventure and transportation: the bicycle.
Two Elmhurst teens, Grant and Lauren Schleiter, plan to help bring more bicycles to more kids who don't have them when the used bicycle drive they helped organize locally gears up for its third year on Saturday, Nov. 2.
"It feels good," said Dori Schleiter, the students' mother. "We're working hard. The program's stronger than it's ever been."
Pedal Power collects gently used donated bikes and delivers them to Cesar Chavez Multicultural Academic Center in Chicago, where they are awarded to honor roll students.
Started in Wilmette in 2008 by students Nicole and Bennett Basil, this year there are 11 Pedal Power bike collection locations, including Stemple's Cycle Center on Spring Road in Elmhurst. Bikes will be accepted from 9 a.m. to noon, and Stemple's will do safety checks and make minor repairs, Dori said.
"We'll put them in the back of the truck and my dad and I will drive to Chicago. We'll take them directly to the school," said Grant, 15, a freshman at Fenwick High School.
Last year, roughly 100 bicycles were collected in the Elmhurst location, Dori said, with more than 300 across the region.
"Most of them were very well conditioned," she said.
She said a grant from the Evanston Bicycle Club will help pay for helmets and bicycle locks. Divvy bikes is donating the use of trucks to transport bikes from collection points to the school.
Lauren, 16, a junior at Fenwick, said she and her brother are considering expanding Pedal Power to several other Western suburbs.
"Sometimes people can't drive all the way to Elmhurst on one day," she said.
Grant said he and his sister, along with their parents, return to the Chicago school on the day the bicycles are distributed each year.
"They have this honor roll assembly and we go and help them pick out the bikes they want. Every time we go there and give the kids the bikes, they have such a smile on their faces," Grant said. "It just makes them work harder. Not only does their happiness go up, their grades go up, too."
"It's just the change and smiles I see in all their faces. I love being with the kids," Lauren said. "A bike is just something we've always had, always grown up with. For a lot of them, it is their first time."
• • •
Pedal Power bicycle donation drive
When: 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Nov. 2
Where: Stemple's Cycle Center, 494 Spring Road, Elmhurst
Info: gopedalpower.com