Before Elbert “Al” Schroader began donating used bicycles to people in need, he collected antique cars.
“At one time, I had a half a dozen,” the Mokena retiree said. Two years ago, he was in the process of getting another when he says divine providence intervened.
“An antique car hobby is a very selfish hobby. You’re lying on your back working on it all week, and then you go show it off and it’s not helping anybody but yourself; your ego,” he said.
On one rainy Monday night, as he was coming home from Bible study at Parkview Church in Orland Park, he spied a bicycle at the end of someone’s driveway, set out for garbage pick-up. He put it in his truck and spent the next week fixing it up.
“I thought somebody could use this,” he recalled.
So he and his wife Rosemary put a notice about the bike in the church’s single-parents email blast, figuring it would make some 12- or 13 year-old child happy.
One night, a man in his late 30s called inquiring about the bike.
“I asked him, ‘How old is your son?'” Al Schroader said.
The man told him he didn’t have a son, that he lived in Melrose Park with his grandmother and he had been taking two buses and a train back and forth to Orland Park. He said a bike would enable him to ride, instead of walk, the distance between the train station and the church. Schroader learned that the man had emotional issues that caused him to lose his license, but that he was getting help.
Thus began a new mission for the Schroaders.
In the two and a half years that Al, 71, and Rosemary, 70, have been collecting, restoring and giving away used bicycles, they’ve helped more than 400 children and adults, most of them in the south suburbs.
Some of the bicycles became Christmas gifts for children living in impoverished homes. Some became transportation for car-less workers. And, some, with baskets, became a means of supermarket shopping for the homeless.
The bikes, and bike parts, come from donations. Friends, neighbors, church members and even the Mokena police drop off used bicycles. In recent weeks, Al said, a Tinley Park officer donated three.
The couple could use a lot more, he said.
The more people learn of their mission, the more requests the Schroaders get.
Right now, their specious four-car garage has several rows of bikes — Murrays, Rhinos, Schwinns — some ready to go out, some waiting to be repaired. Outside, along the side of the building, is a long row of other bicycles waiting to be processed.
Still, Al Schroader said, they are always in need of both bikes and parts.
“There’s value in any kind of donation, especially tires, tubes and seats,” he said. “Seats are very expensive. We need boys’ seats especially, because I think they throw their bikes down so they wear out on the sides.”
Though many recipients share their tales of personal hardship, he said he and his wife try not to judge.
“I just want to get you somewhere where you can get help and get the strength you need to get where you need to be,” he said.
“When we get a bike, I take a look to see if it can be repaired. If it can, I repair it. Rosemary keeps a spreadsheet. I take a picture and assign a number and give it a description,” he said. That way, when someone asks for a bike, he can check his stock and match the need.
They’ve delivered bikes to a New Lenox motel where a man and his 15-year-old son were living. The man needed transportation to work and the teen needed transportation to school. During the drop off, they learned about two more families living in the motel and ended up bringing bikes to them as well.
“We ended up delivering 12 bikes to that motel,” Al said.
This past Christmas, the Schroaders were the biggest bike supplier in Operation Blessing’s annual holiday toy drive, said Frank Sorice, executive director for the Alsip organization.
“By the time all was said and done, they had donated 30-35 bikes,” Sorice said. “We were absolutely blown away.”
Other organizations to which the Schroaders have given bikes include: the Frankfort Food Pantry; the state Children and Family Services Department in Joliet; Angels for Families at Parkview; Journey Hub in Mokena; The Forgotten Initiative in Gridley, Ill.; and All God’s Children in Tinley Park.
Through a man known only as “the Street Creature,” who calls them with the locations of people in need, they’ve been connected to many homeless who were grateful to receive the gift of mobility.
“I don’t want to get into their business. I want to just help them. I feel that we need just to love them,” he said.
“I always make sure I have a little bit of a conversation (with the recipient). I don’t want to get involved in their life unless there is something I can do to help, but I want them to know there’s an accountability here. So I mention the word ‘need’ at least three times. I want them to fully understand what we’re trying to do. I’m trying to prevent giving someone a bike and then having that person turn around and put it on Craigslist. And I think we’ve been successful in doing that.”
There was one woman from Blue Island, Rosemary said, who inquired about a bike and also asked if they knew of a food pantry in her area.
“We told her about Operation Blessing and the pantry at Lighthouse Church,” she said. But when she and her husband came in a rundown car with plastic over the driver’s side window to pick up their bike, the Schroaders also had canned goods and winter clothing waiting for them.
When they began the bike mission, Al said, they thought they’d follow another bike donation organization’s steps and charge $20 per bicycle. But when they met their first recipient, a single mom living in a home with sparse furniture, they decided to be truly helpful, they’d have to give the bikes away.
So, Al said, he learned how to cannibalize parts. The Schroader garage has a shelving unit that holds hundreds of bike parts — including screws, bolts, tires and cans of spray paint. In addition, Al said the couple contributes just under $1,000 of their own money to the cause each year.
“It does make me feel good,” Al said. “But I try to stay humble, because I am just doing the Lord’s work.”
The Schroaders, who first met when they were students at Lincoln-Way Central in the 1960s, have been married five years. After high school, each married other people. But after Al was divorced and Rosemary widowed, the couple reconnected through a mutual friend’s Facebook page. At the time, Al was living in South Carolina.
One thing led to another, and they fell in love. Al, who used to work with Equifax credit bureau, said he sent a letter to all of their children, announcing their intentions and encouraging them to ask questions if they had any.
“The only question my son had was, ‘Are you going to take my mom away because we need her to babysit?'” said Rosemary, who had worked as a legal secretary in Chicago.
Together they have four children and nine grandchildren. In addition to their newfound mission, their home is also a safe home for Bethany Christian Services, which means they often take in children on a temporary basis, in an attempt to ultimately keep families together.
Though they both own bicycles, Al said they only ride occasionally. When they began the mission, he said, “I didn’t know anything about repairing bikes. But I do now.”
He learned how to recondition them through YouTube videos, and by consulting a mechanics book.
“From there, it was trial and error. I did have to get some outside help every now and then,” he said. “But mostly, it’s just time and energy.”
In return, he added, he gets the opportunity to help some of society’s most vulnerable people.
For more information on donating or receiving a bike, contact the Schroaders at 708-990-6967.
@dvickroy