For the ninth year in a row, Wilmette resident Nicole Basil is asking families across the North Shore to check the backs of their garages and basements for bicycles their children have outgrown, as Basil’s Pedal Power campaign gears up for its 2016 run, from 9 a.m. to noon Nov. 12.
Most of the bikes Basil and her volunteers collect in Wilmette and Winnetka, Evanston, Glenview, Northbrook, Lake Forest and Palatine will find their way to Chicago Public School elementary students who have worked hard to make the honor roll – students who otherwise might not ever own a bicycle.
Pedal Power stems from a question Basil asked as a third grade student: I have a bicycle; why don’t all kids? Basil’s parents, Melissa and Mike Basil, initially helped their daughter organize the campaign. As she got older and it widened beyond Wilmette, Nicole Basil took the helm. She said last week that she is proud of what Pedal Power has accomplished.
“Last year’s collection we had around 200 bicycles, but since 2008, our total is over 2,200,” she said.
Pedal Power’s strategy is still the same, she said. Donors bring their gently used two-wheelers to a collection center, where mechanics determine which ones can be tuned up and used, Basil said. The bikes are then delivered to the Chicago Public School’s Cesar Chavez Multicultural Academic Center, 4747 S. Marshfield Ave., where they are awarded to honor roll students, Basil said.
If the bicycles need more work to be usable, they’re not discarded, Basil said. Instead, they benefit CPS students in the bicycle repair program at Northside Learning Center, a high school at 3730 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. in Chicago, which serves students with cognitive challenges, she said.
Basil, now 17 and in her junior year at New Trier High School, wanted to keep Pedal Power going, but knew her focus will soon shift to a new phase in her life: university.
“I was looking for someone to take it over, so this was kind of perfect timing,” Basil said of Wilmette fourth-grader Meg Erickson’s decision to help with the 2016 collection campaign.
Basil said she first met Meg when she babysat her as an eighth grade student.
“I think she got to know Meg’s personality, saw a little of her responsible nature, and identified her as someone who could do this,” Tiffany Erickson, Meg’s mother, said.
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Basil and Meg made a Pedal Power presentation Friday at McKenzie Elementary School in Wilmette.
“We talked about what Pedal Power is and who the bikes are for,” Meg said, adding that she is excited about getting involved, and looks forward to meeting some of the students who will get bicycles.
Basil said she plans to work with Meg this year and next year, “but after that it will be Meg’s.
“I’m a little sad, because it’s my baby and I’ve grown it into this whole big thing,” Basil said. “But I know Meg is going to do a great job.”
For information on Pedal Power, including this year’s bike collection locations, visit http://gopedalpower.com/http://gopedalpower.com. On Friday, the campaign announced one more collection location, at St. Joan of Arc Church and School, 9245 N. Lawndale Ave., Evanston, according to Mike Basil, Nicole Basil’s father.
Twitter @pioneer_kathy
This story was updated Friday, Nov. 4, 2016, to add information about an additional collection location.