IMMOKALEE – Some 30 students at Immokalee Community School are to receive early Christmas presents on Friday: used, spruced up bicycles from the Sanibel Bicycle Club.
Members of the club plan to deliver 40 bicycles to the school at 10:30 a.m. The school will distribute 30 to fifth- and sixth-graders who don’t already own bicycles. The remaining 10 bikes will go to Immokalee’s Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, which aids needy families.
Immokalee Community School serves some 240 students from low-income families. It is run by Redlands Christian Migrant Association, and is one of two charter schools and 74 child-care centers operated by the Immokalee-based RCMA.
The Sanibel club several years ago began organizing a community drive to collect used bikes for distribution to the needy. Since 2008, the bicycle club has brought almost 500 bicycles from affluent Sanibel to impoverished residents of Immokalee.
“The bikes keep rolling in,” said Patti Sousa, who coordinates the effort for the 200-member club. “We’ve been really touched to see the reactions of people in Immokalee when they get a bike. The need is unmistakable.”