Listen Now!  (3:32 Minutes)

Download the MP3  (1.2 MB)

• More LA Daily News Podcasts
• Podcast/iTunes FAQ
• Download the Latest iTunes Software
• Search All News Podcasts

Group restores bikes for needy children

Elaine Pease still cherishes the moment when she saw that little girl's face light up at the sight of the red-and-white tricycle she was getting for Christmas.

"She was walking beside her mother, holding onto this bicycle as if it were the most precious gift in the world, and smiled up at mother every few steps," Pease said. "Moments like that make everything worthwhile to me."

The little girl was presented with the tricycle as part of Bike Angels, a program that Pease started in Burbank three years ago to repair donated bikes and offer them to needy children.

With the holiday season fast approaching, the volunteers are already back at work in their version of Santa's Workshop - a makeshift trailer behind the Burbank Community Services building - to fix up donated bikes to nearly new condition. The rehabbed bicycles are distributed to underprivileged children through the Salvation Army, which takes requests from needy families for Christmas presents.

Bikes, considered a big-ticket item, are requested more and more as families realize it's possible to get one for their children.

"We actually have as much fun ... doing this as the kids are going to have when they receive these bikes on Christmas morning," said Pease, a city of Burbank employee.

"This is a way of sharing and giving a gift that can give them mobility, wheels, wings, get them out there where they might not be able to go otherwise."

About 20 bikes were given out the first year, and 65 were gifted last year.

This year, volunteers are expecting to distribute more than 100.

And to do that, the Bike Angels are asking people to donate the dusty unused bike sitting in the garage, any bike parts or even volunteer to help clean, repair, assemble and decorate the bicycles.

"It's nice to give back, and we think it's important to give back," said Lt. Eric Rosoff, a volunteer from the Burbank Police Department.

"When you're actually involved with a project like that and you know kids are benefiting where they normally wouldn't, it's just great."

Pease got the effort rolling in 2009, when she saw that many of the tags that kids put on the Salvation Army's Angel Tree asked for bikes from Santa.

The Burbank Fire and Police departments also sweeten the deal for the new bike owner by throwing in a helmet and bike lock   Read Full Article...