Print edition: 
For more than 22 years, people in Wichita have helped the Bicycle Pedaler donate between 250 to 400 bicycles annually to Toys for Tots.
The Bicycle Pedaler, 330 N. Rock Road, is once again accepting used bicycles and tricycles for the Marine Corps’ annual Toys for Tots campaign.
The bikes and trikes will be repaired, if necessary, at the company’s shop before the Marines collect and distribute them to the Wichita area’s needy children.
According to Ruth Holliday, co-owner of the shop, this year the shop is short on bicycles. As in years past, one of the stipulations in accepting the bikes is that they not be rusty. Smaller bikes are preferred, but any size is accepted.
In past years, the collection often has had some leftover bicycles that need more help than the time allotted to repairing them. Those bikes are often given to His Helping Hands, which takes them to the Ellsworth prison bike shop as part of a prisoners’ rehabilitation program.
“So it is a win-win, nothing goes to waste,” Holliday said in an e-mail to The Eagle. “The rusty ones that still show up get recycled, and that money the prisoners use to buy parts.”
