Call to Donate Old Bikes to Help Disadvantaged Youngsters

A Leeds charity is calling for people to donate their old bikes, to help disadvantaged youngsters in the city.

The appeal has been launched by the charity The Works - which runs a skate park and education courses in Hunslet to help children who struggle at school.

Catherine Bower from the charity knows first-hand the difference it can make:

• “My son came down, learnt how to skate and made fantastic friends here,”* she says.

“He was a child that didn’t have an awful lot of confidence and was told he wouldn’t pass his GCSEs. And from somewhere he developed this new confidence – enough so that he wants to be an actor and is now studying at the University of Huddersfield.”

The donated bikes will be given out to kids in the city, along with maintenance training and bike-ability lessons.

Some of the bikes are also going to our charity Cash for Kids, for their Mission Christmas appeal.

The charity works closely with schools, youth groups and extended services, with the aim of getting children back into exercise whilst having fun through learning non-traditional sports.

Elliot Turnbull, who runs the Works, says they want to continue the positive legacy of Tour de Yorkshire:

“There will have been so many kids out there who don’t have access to a bike, who were probably watching from the side-lines thinking ‘I’d love a go, but how?’

“So apart from the bike package we’ll provide everyone who gets a bike with maintenance training, bike-ability levels one, two and three and we’ll take them on rides all around Leeds, highlighting where they can go and what’s great about the city.

“There are so many kids in the city who don’t actually get anything for Christmas and what we wanted to do through the appeal was get Leeds to create something for Leeds.”

Catherine agrees: “Giving these children an opportunity to get on a bike which they wouldn’t have had, and to learn how to maintain it, will develop a confidence that hopefully will lead onto much, much more.”