LOCAL PROGRAM PROVIDES BIKES FOR THOSE IN NEED Writer / Carrie Vittitoe Photography Provided
It is amazing to think how one conversation between two individuals can lead to positive change in a community that helps thousands of people. For Bob Callander, a longtime member of Beargrass Christian Church, a chat about transportation for refugee families in Louisville nearly eight years ago led to a mission that keeps him very busy in his retirement. Beargrass Christian Church in St. Matthews has long been involved with sponsoring refugee families who come to Louisville. While volunteering at Kentucky Refugee Ministries (KRM) headquarters, Callander noticed someone handing out TARC passes to refugee families and asked some questions. He learned that TARC was the only form of transportation, besides walking, that most local refugees have.
can’t get a license and they can’t afford a car,” Callander says. “I thought, ‘We’ve got 1,300 members. We’ll go into the membership, find old bicycles, and give them so they’ll have something.’” In the summer of 2013, Callander worked with others to locate and fix up bikes to donate to KRM, and he remembers what a big deal it was to get to 50 bikes. Some media coverage for that project, which became the Pedal Power ministry, led to an abundance of bike donations, and an increasing number of volunteers to help ensure the bikes were cleaned up and safe. “We were able to turn them around really fast, and we got hooked up with the mayor’s Give A Day,” he says. In that first year of participating in the Give A Day event, Pedal Power accumulated 160 bikes and gave them away all at once.
“They may know how to drive a car, but they “Phase Two was to find other organizations 14 / SEPTEMBER 2020
that had clients that needed bicycles,” Callander says. Beargrass Christian Church members contacted and were contacted by a variety of local organizations to see what needs they had, including Louisville Community Ministries, Churchill Downs (which has a large Guatemalan community of workers and their families), St. Vincent de Paul, and Boys & Girls Clubs of Kentuckiana. “We’ve got about 15 different groups we give bikes to, but it’s always evolving,” Callander says, adding that addiction and prison re-entry programs also have a need for bikes. “We may focus on four or five for a few months until they get their fill, so we shift to other groups. We try to spread it around to whomever needs the bikes.” Callander says it has always been a balancing act between having enough bikes, having enough volunteers to fix the bikes, and having enough places to donate the bikes.
