Local PD To Donate Abandoned Bikes To Those In Need

ROUND LAKE PARK, IL — The Round Lake Police Department has recently partnered with Working Bikes in Chicago to make sure unclaimed or abandoned bicycles the police department is storing are distributed to those in need. 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 in the area, and also sends the bikes to impoverished countries throughout the world, according to a news release from the Round Lake Police Department.

"Countless bicycles are discarded or sit unused in garages in the United States every year. But in a
developing country a bicycle can truly change the life of an individual, their family and their community," according to the police department's news release. "Bicycling is, of course, a form of transportation. But bicycles are also used for towing cargo, and even as a source of electricity through the creation of pedal-powered machines. In areas plagued by poverty, high levels of unemployment and lack of reliable, accessible transportation, a bicycle can help provide
access to jobs, education, medical attention, and other resources."

Since its inception, Working Bikes has recovered tens of thousands of discarded and donated bicycles from Chicago and the Midwest, and has redistributed more than 70,000 of them
worldwide.

Working Bikes donates over 6,500 bicycles per year to local and international partners. The organization ships thousands of bicycles each year to our partners in countries throughout Latin America and Africa, including El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, Uganda, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Ghana.

“The Round Lake Park Police Department will continue to distribute bicycles to our community as well," according to a statement from the police department. "We were recently contacted by a Veterans organization and hope to partner with them as well."