Free Bikes 4 Kidz collects thousands of bikes during annual donation drive

For the 12th year running, a Minnesota nonprofit teamed up with Allina Health to collect thousands of unused bikes for kids in need.

Over the years, Free Bikes 4 Kidz has collected over 100,000 bikes for kids in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Organizers told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS they brought in 5,598 bicycles among 26 donation sites Saturday.

“Every one of these bikes represents a child who will get a bike and a child who doesn’t have a bike,” Free Bikes 4 Kidz founder Terry Esau said. “I think a bike changes a kid’s life, and that’s what we are doing today. We are trying to change five to 10,000 kids’ lives with these bikes.”

Rusty, new or even broken, all the donated bikes are pedaled in to a Brooklyn Center storage facility, where volunteers will repair them and prepare them for handing them out to the community.