Donated Bikes Head From Suburbs To Chicago Public Schools Honor Roll Students

WILMETTE, IL — Bicycles that would otherwise be sitting unused in suburban garages are instead awarded to honor roll students in Chicago thanks to the student-led nonprofit Pedal Power.

Founded in 2008 by Nicole Basil, then a third grader at McKenzie Elementary School in Wilmette, Pedal Power partners with bike shops in the north and western suburbs for an annual bike drive.

Originally, the Wilmette public school functioned as the drop off site. This year, there are six bike shops where people can leave donated bikes Saturday morning.

Each bike shop contributes staff time to check to make sure the bikes are in good working order before they are collected and delivered to Chicago Public Schools.

In 2017, with Basil and her brother Bennett completed high school, they passed the torch to family friends, Cailyn and Owen FitzGerald, now juniors at New Trier High School.

"When they went to college, they kind of handed it off to us," Owen told Patch. "I think it's kind of just a really good way to help the community and help CPS kids. I think it was just an opportunity to do good."

Most of the nearly 5,000 bikes collected over Pedal Power's more than a dozen donation drives have been awarded to students who make the honor roll at Cesar E. Chávez Multicultural Academic Center in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood.

"Who doesn't love bike riding?" Cailyn said. "And why wouldn't you want to give some other kid that opportunity as well?"

If the donated bikes are not up to snuff for students to ride, they donated for parts to be used at the bike shop at Northside Learning Center High School, a Chicago Public School for students with intellectual disabilities and impaired functioning.

"We go to all the donation sites after the donation time, we load them all up into the U-Haul and normally we drive down to Cesar Chavez," Owen said.

The donation drive did not take place in the fall of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it resumed in November 2021. It was not held in 2022 after being shifted from the fall to the spring this year for the first time.

Julie FitzGerald, the mother of Cailyn and Owen, said Pedal Power has always been run by students, with Elmhurst siblings Lauren and Grant Schleiter helping expand the drive to the western suburbs. She said her family hopes to pass it along to the next generation of youth once her children graduate New Trier.

"They're juniors now, so after next year, we'll find another family and we'll pass it on to them. So I kind of like the idea of it continuing, students helping other students," FitzGerald said.

"It's taught them, and it'll teach the next family, how to run an organization like this," she said. "I mean, it's obviously on a smaller scale but I think it's good learning as well."

Ideally, she said, the FitzGeralds will hand over the reigns to middle school-aged students who can lead the organization during their high school years — though they have yet to find the perfect candidates.

Donated bikes, which are all tax-deductible will be collected from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 20 at the following locations:

Wilmette Bike Shop, 605 Green Bay Road, Wilmette

Green Bay Cycles, 999 Green Bay Road, Winnetka

Kiddles Sports, 258 Market Square, Lake Forest

George Garner Cyclery, 1111 Waukegan Road, Northbook and 740 N. Milwaukee Ave., Libertyville