Bike shop plays Santa to kids in need

By Brian Ojanpa
Free Press Staff Writer

MANKATO September 08, 2008 12:51 am

— Mike Busch’s yearly task may not be a labor of love, but it’s certainly a labor of largesse.
Busch, of The Spoke bike shop in Mankato, takes discarded bicycles, makes them “new” again, and passes them along for distribution to deserving kids at Christmas.
It’s all part of the St. Peter Santa Anonymous bike program that annually provides free wheels to children who otherwise might go without.
“We don’t need to create the need; the need is there,” says Busch, who works two weeks full time each fall to refurbish donated bikes.
St. Peter Santa Anonymous volunteer coordinator Marie Dranttel said the program distributed 30 bikes in its first year and 19 last year.
“But we have to have a lottery system because there are more people who sign up for bikes than we have bikes,” she said.
Last year, 40 signed up, meaning 50 percent of requests went unfilled, she said.
Hence the need for donations — and the hope that people think twice before relegating a bike to a landfill.
“Few people buy a bike with an exit strategy in mind,” Busch said. “They think, ‘Oh, now that I can’t use it anymore, what do I do with it?’ We encourage people not to pre-judge what they have.”
Busch said it typically takes him 30 minutes to two hours to make a bike serviceable for a new user. And he doesn’t envy Dranttel’s task of trying to determine who gets the limited supply of gift bikes.
“She’s got the tough part,” Busch said. “I just deal with inanimate bikes — and they don’t talk back.”

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