Donate Your Old Bicycle to Recycle Cycle

Maybe it’s been hanging up in your garage for ages or hogging valuable space in your shed. Regardless of your reasons for mothballing your old adult bicycle, a student at The University of Findlay will put it to good use if you’re willing to part with it.
Recycle Cycle, an increasingly popular University-sponsored bicycle loan program, will be hosting a donation day on Wednesday, Oct. 29, for those who have used bikes they no longer want.
Program organizers will accept them for drop-off from 4-6 p.m. in front of the Alumni Memorial Union, located on Frazer Street just west of Shafer Library, as part of the University’s “Green Spirit Day” initiative. They will also pick up bicycles at off-campus locations. To arrange a pick-up, email Michael Reed, Ph.D., at reed@findlay.edu. Reed is a Teaching English as a Second Language and bilingual education professor who oversees Recycle Cycle.
The bicycles don’t have to be in mint condition, but “we’d like for them to be in relatively good condition. Age is not an issue,” said Reed, who, along with student volunteers, refurbish the bikes. They loan them to students for the entire school year with a $40 deposit, which is returned when the bikes are returned. The agreements, which require students to lock their bicycles with locks that are provided, are annually renewable as long as the borrower remains a student.
Recycle Cycle is so in-demand that it has a waiting list, said Reed.
In exchange for used bike donations, the program will give some food grown at Hoop House, which provides fresh produce to the University community.
Bicycle donators and the rest of the community are also welcome to attend a cooking demonstration, using Hoop House greens and vegetables, to be held at noon that day in the Alumni Memorial Union. A drawing will be held to give away bags of fresh greens.