The Optimist Club was recently fortunate enough to be given an insight into a long-running initiative right here in Port Colborne that has reached into the hearts of our community and far beyond.
The Broken Spoke program is the brainchild of founder Aubrey Foley. In 2008 Aubrey started the Broken Spoke program from his home. From such humble beginnings the program grew, and in 2015 found a new home at the Port Colborne High School.
The Broken Spoke program at the PC High School is a fantastic initiative that repurposes broken bicycles from landfill into functional bikes for those in need.
PCHS gives students an opportunity to receive training and workplace experience repairing and maintaining bicycles which are then sent on to good homes – some of them in other countries. Broken Spoke is currently the only initiative in any Canadian High School which offers such a volunteer program and Aubrey is rightfully proud of this.
Partners
Broken Spoke has partnered with Goodwill Niagara and the five Niagara Region landfill sites. Unwanted bicycles are collected weekly, sometimes by the container load, and Aubrey and his team go to work. In addition to rescuing and recovering these bikes from oblivion, the landfill sites have in recent years started shipping medical devices such as weelchairs and walkers, which the team repair. These devices are far from cheap to buy, and the team are happy to help reduce the costs to those in need of them.
in 2018 Broken Spoke earned the North American Silver award for their recycling efforts. That’s North American, not just Canadian. Broken Spoke ships bikes as far as Cuba and Venezuela as well as other far off destinations. This team keeps busy, and their production skills are like an assembly line. Aubrey steers his volunteers with a firm but fair hand, guiding the team to ever greater heights.
To date, Broken Spoke has donated over 25,000 bikes worldwide. Recipients include 19 non-profit agencies, as well as charities, church groups, day cares, and municipal community programs such as our own Port Cares.
The Port Colborne Optimist Club was pleased to present a cheque to Aubrey, which will be spent on necessary items like brake cables and new tires for the ever-mounting number of recycled bikes they work on every year. We hope this amazing program continues from strength to strengh in the years to come.
Want to know more about Broken Spoke? Aubrey can be reached on Twitter (X) @PCHSBikes, via phone at 905-932-1250, and email thebrokenspoke99@gmail.com – tell him we sent you.
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