UNM’s chapter of the Lambda Theta Phi Latin fraternity spent the weekend giving bicycles to children who need them.
About 15 members of the fraternity volunteered to help the Community Bike Recycling Program. They put together bikes and distributed them to Albuquerque elementary school students.
Alejandro Elias, president of Lambda Theta Phi Latin fraternity, said the fraternity volunteers with the program once a semester.
“I think it’s kind of neat because some of the kids have never had bikes,” Elias said. “It is a gift for them and that is something we focus on in our fraternity. It’s to give back to the community.”
The volunteer-only program, which began in 2004, accepts donations of working or broken bicycles. The bikes are then given to needy families, said program director Richard Rivas. Apart from the fraternity, four volunteers work twice a week to fix up and distribute bicycles.
The program distributes about 30 to 40 bikes to a different Albuquerque elementary school every month, Rivas said. The group keeps up to 400 bikes in its warehouse at all times.
Rivas and his volunteers choose bike recipients with the help of the elementary schools’ counselors, who identify students whose families have financial hardships, Rivas said.
Through the program, Rivas and his volunteers educate bike recipients on bike safety and tout the health benefits of riding bicycles.
“It’s an all-volunteer group and we don’t get paid for any of the services,” he said. “I don’t have the volunteers to do all the repairs on the bikes. I have established organizations to give them bikes (and) have them (repair) the bikes. As president, I try to get other groups throughout the city to help the kids in the community.”
Gian Chaves, community service chair for the fraternity, said he stumbled on Rivas’ program a couple of years ago. Chaves said he and his fraternity brothers volunteer because it benefits all of Albuquerque.
“One of the reasons I like to do this kind of community service is because we can get our hands dirty,” Chaves said. “It’s fun, but it’s fulfilling whenever you get to see the faces on these kids when they get a bike.”
Rivas said he’s looking to expand the Community Bike Recycling Program.
“We haven’t expanded out to the rest of the Bernalillo County area just yet,” he said. “But we could go outside to Santa Fe, Los Lunas and every where else if we got the help.”*
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Community Bike Recycling Program
www.CommunityBikeRecycling.org*
