Brad Belcher, our Founder and Executive Director, retired from Boeing in March of 2017 after 36 years at the Company. A few years before retiring he was looking through Craig’s List and noticed the free bikes that are often listed. He thought that there should be some good use for these bikes. While on a bike ride he had the Idea that someone could take the bikes, refurbish them, and donate them to low income youth. He mentioned this idea to one of his doctors and she said that it would make a great non-profit.
Shortly before he retired he started a non-profit corporation called Bicycle Rescue for Youth. They are an organization that is dedicated to helping to stop childhood obesity in low income households. They do this by providing used refurbished bicycles as a means of fun exercise that instills a sense of healthy living. This along with Nutritional/health information will aid in reducing the childhood obesity crisis. Their operating area for now consists of the greater maple valley area and including out to Issaquah with a plan to expand.
How It Works
The bicycles are donated by individuals, Maple Valley precinct 3 King County Sheriff and the Maple Valley Police. Individuals will be able to make donations directly to us or the local Food Banks. The Food Banks will also serve as a distribution center.
They take the bikes that pass their initial inspection and refurbish them. They limit their costs to $40.00 a bike and that includes a helmet and lock. They are looking into working with medical facilities to offset the cost of the helmets or possibly get them donated. They are working on finding a sponsor for the lock sets as well.
Any of the bikes that don’t pass their inspection will be dismantled and any functional parts are used to refurbish other bikes. Any parts that are not functional will be recycled through varies recycling organizations thus keeping recyclable material from landfills. To date they have saved approximately 400 lbs. from ending up in the waste system.
They are coordinating an effort that will allow them to work with the six local food banks as drop off points and a distribution centers. We also hope to be working with local school districts to identify anonymous children that could benefit from our program
The Backstory
Brad was raised by a single mother, with an absent step father, in a very low-income family with two brothers. For most of his youth his family was on public assistance as it was called back then. In 1969 his family moved to CA and for a brief time were homeless staying in a women’s shelter for several weeks. There was no money for anything extra, so bicycles were out of the question. This being the case he didn’t learn to ride until he was about nine or ten, on a bike he borrowed from the neighbors. At one point in the mid 60’s his older brother and he received a couple brand new bikes from their grandparents. They only had them for a week or so until someone stole them off the porch.
When he was 11 in around 1971 he got permission from one of the neighbors to take bike parts from a scrap heap. With these parts he managed to piece together the first bike he would own. He rode it everywhere without realizing the amount of exercise he was receiving. It provided a sense of freedom that he could now go anywhere I wanted, if mom said it was ok.
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