March 8, 1927 - March 17, 2011
Sally Arvidson, known as the "Bike Lady" at area garage sales for many years. In recognition of her efforts Redeemer established "Sally's Bike Shop" to continue with her legacy. A celebration of her life was held at Redeemer Lutheran Church on April 2 at 7:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers the family requested good used and new children's bikes, donations to the Bicycle Fund or a charity of your choice.
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Our bike ministry origins have slowly faded into the past of when and who actually began the program. We estimate that Redeemer's volunteers have been collecting and fixing up bikes for over twenty years. The ministry was started to help the migrant children down in Belle Glade, FL have presents for Christmas. Church volunteers connected with the Peppe Head Start Child Development Program started by Lutheran Services of Florida and were provided names for our Giving Tree. Ornaments were hung up with names and ages of the children. Our members still purchase and wrap gifts for the children every year. Along with these gifts, we take a rental truck filled with refurbished bikes for the kids. The caravan of gift filled vehicles and rental truck make their pilgrimage early in December every year.
As our community has changed the bike ministry has adapted to meet those needs when possible. Our local community has generously donated used and unwanted bikes weekly over the years. Many just "know" to bring their bikes to us and the word of mouth effort has sustained this ministry. We receive tricycles, children's bikes, dirt bikes, racing bikes, adult leisure bikes, you name it and its probably showed up on our doorstep. Redeemer doesn't have much storage room for these bikes so parts are stripped from those that are unable to be repaired and triage is setup to figure out which ones are worth keeping. Children's bikes are the priority and adult bikes are assessed. Most of the adult bikes we receive, if they are worth repairing, are given to local neighbors and homeless in need of bikes.
Our bike ministry starts gearing up in late fall as volunteers come in to clean and repair bikes. Unfortunately, over the years our shed has been broken into many times and local hooligans have taken bikes and parts but our community continues to respond by donating their unwanted bikes. But the word still needs to get out there. People move away and new neighbors move in and Sally Arvidson was one of our biggest donators. Sally showed up at many garage and yard sales asking about unwanted bikes to purchase and tried to convince the owners to just donate them to the ministry succeeding many times. She would stop her vehicle and pop the trunk when discarded bikes were laying by trash cans especially shortly after Christmas when old bikes were replaced by shiny new ones. Sally's determination to keep looking for children's bikes and spreading the ministry need to others prompted our church to rename the Bike Ministry to Sally's Bike Shop. Sally is now resting in the arms of Christ but her generous spirit was shared among many people who will continue where Sally left off.
If you would like to donate unwanted children's bikes please bring them by the church Monday - Thursday 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. or call the church office to make arrangements for another time. We collect bicycle helmets and donations to help cover the cost of new tires, parts, and truck rental.
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