Wheels Provides Bikes to Recent Refugees

Wheels for Winners provided bikes to 3 generations of bike earners from Syria and 3 earners from Tanzania thanks to our partnership with Open Doors for Refugees. Open Doors says, “We support new and recent arrivals in a variety of ways, largely through a network of volunteer teams. Most notably, our Donations and Move-In teams collect donations of furniture and household items and use them to furnish and stock apartments for arriving refugees. We also have teams that provide Translation, Transportation, ESL, and Employment services.”

Bikes help recent refugees get around town, to work, run errands, get to know their new neighborhoods with their children and get acclimated to their new life here in Dane County.

Thanks to Open Doors for Refugees for all you do!

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Backyard Hero - Jamie Campbell of Wheels for Winners

Our own Jamie Campbell receives Community Shares of Wisconsin November 2023 Backyard Hero Award!

“Jamie Campbell is a volunteer for Wheels for Winners, an organization that provides bicycles to individuals who perform community service. Jamie’s can-do energy is infectious, and his willingness to take on challenges is inspiring. He led the effort to install environmentally friendly lighting at the Wheels for Winners shop, helps maintain the inventory of donated bikes, and provides excellent support for bike repair and distribution events in the community.”

Congratulations Jamie!!!

Each month Community Shares of Wisconsin presents the Backyard Hero Award to organizations and people making change happen in our community.

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555 Bikes Headed to Ghana and Village Bicycle Project

On Friday, October 27, Wheels for Winners, Free Bikes 4 Kidz, Dream Bikes and Working Bikes provided 555 bikes headed to Ghana. Over 8 exhausting hours, the bikes were painstakingly loaded into an empty container by experienced Working Bikes and Trek volunteers. The bikes chosen aren’t necessarily great for the Dane County riding environment, but are ideal for roads in Ghana.

Working Bikes in Chicago spearheaded this collaborative effort sending the bikes to the Village Bicycle Project in Ghana. These bicycles will provide time-saving transportation that significantly increases access to income, health and education. Working Bikes collects donated bikes from all over Chicago and the Midwest. Their mission is to strengthen local and global communities by giving donated bicycles new life and redistributing them as tools for self-determination. See Eben and the crew at Village Bicycle Project Ghana.

Wheels for Winners has been providing about 300 bikes annually to Working Bikes. Working Bikes typically brings a truck to Madison to collect 50-75 bikes at a time and take them back to Chicago for consolidation into a shipping container. Trevor Clarke, the executive director of Working Bikes, states, “We bring over 10,000 bicycles a year to our warehouse in Chicago, sending them out to folks who need transportation in our community and communities across the globe. We’re thrilled to be collaborating with our friends in Madison to, for the first time, send a container directly from Wisconsin to our partners abroad.” Working Bikes trains mechanics at the Village Bicycle Project in Ghana. The Village Bicycle Project fixes them, gives away about half and sells the other half to provide paychecks to their mechanics.