Woodlands Academy to host used bike drive April 21
LAKE FOREST, Ill. - Here's a chance to put that cast aside bicycle of yours to use in a way that truly can make a difference in someone's life. Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart is opening its current service project to general public participation by hosting a used bike collection on Saturday, April 21. Between 9 a.m. and noon bicycles of any size in repairable condition as well as gently used kids' bikes can be dropped off at the all-girls college preparatory high school, 760 E. Westleigh Road in Lake Forest.
Woodlands Academy's project is being done in conjunction with Working Bikes of Chicago, a nonprofit organization that gives donated bicycles new life by redistributing them as tools of empowerment in local and global communities. The bicycles collected during this drive will be refurbished by Working Bikes and then donated to its local and international partners. Since its inception in 1999, the organization has recovered tens of thousands of discarded and donated bicycles from Chicago and the Midwest, and has redistributed more than 50,000 of them worldwide.
Locally, Working Bikes donates to individuals and partner organizations in the Chicago area, providing transportation to people in homeless transition, refugee resettlement and youth empowerment programs.
The organization notes that in developing countries, a bicycle can truly change the life of an individual. In areas plagued by poverty, high levels of unemployment and lack of reliable transportation, a bicycle can help provide access to jobs, education, medical attention and other resources. For more information about Working Bikes, visit www.workingbikes.org.
Woodlands Academy's used bike drive to help this cause is being done in the spirit of Sacred Heart schools' Goal III, "a social awareness which compels to action." Students at the Lake Forest school need to perform a minimum of 70 hours of community service to graduate.
In addition to the April 21 public event, those participating in the current service project will seek to collect bikes from within the Woodlands community between April 18 and May 3.
For more information about the school, visit www.woodlandsacademy.org.
Founded in 1858, Woodlands Academy is an independent Catholic college preparatory day and boarding high school for young women. It's part of a worldwide network of Sacred Heart Schools that spans the United States and 40 other countries. A nonprofit, Woodlands Academy's identity is rooted in Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat's desire to inspire young hearts and minds to excel, to lead lives of integrity and to serve. For more information about Woodlands Academy, please visit www.woodlandsacademy.org