Poly Club Seeks Bike Donations

The Environmental Club at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute will collect unwanted bikes so they can be shipped over seas to help poor people get to school and work. 

From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, at the school’s parking lot at the corner of Falls Road and Cold Spring Lane, members of the club, along with the nonprofit Bikes for the World, will be accepting donated bikes that the charity will ship overseas to help the poor.

A $10 donation is recommended to help offset the cost of shipping the bikes overseas, but residents who donate a bike to the organization will receive a 10 percent discount on their next purchase at Baltimore Bicycle Works.

According to Bikes for the World’s website, the organization has donated 73, 873 bikes in countries such as Sierra Leone, the Philippines and Costa Rica.

This is the second year in a row the club has collected bikes with Bikes for the World.   

The club’s president Joshua Spokes, who is now a senior at the school, organized the first drive.

Last year Spokes said the idea for organizing the collection came about because he wanted to find a way to help the planet and people.

"We only have one planet. We can’t spoil it," Spokes said at the time.

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