CommuniCycle

Over spring break, I was on an ICO trip in Aliquippa. It’s a small, impoverished town right outside of Pittsburgh, PA where we got to work with many different ministries and businesses. I previously wrote about Uncommon Grounds Café, a cafe ministry showing people God and His love to others through coffee, community, and culture. For multiple days on the trip, we worked with a non-profit business called CommuniCycle.

CommuniCycle started when Lee, the founder, was working on someone’s house with some buddies and a young boy came up to him, asking Lee to fix his bike. The little boy didn’t have a father figure growing and Lee wanted to be that for him, so he decided to fix his bike. After talking to bike shops who told him to buy a new bike, he found someone who helped him fix specific parts of the bike. Once Lee fixed the bike, he took it to the boy and five minutes later, the little boy’s friends found Lee and asked him to fix their bikes. After that day, He started this business and hasn’t looked back. Now, Lee and his team work on bikes that need to be fixed or they will “tear the bike down”, which means taking off all the usable parts and putting them on another bike.

Over the few days we worked in their shop, we got to work with organizations and other ministries, BCRC and Gateway Rehab. BCRB is a place for people with learning disabilities and special needs to go, grow, and develop in a supportive environment. We got to work with them for a day, repairing bikes and hear about their lives. The other day, we worked with Gateway Rehab, a rehab facility to help those who are fighting with addiction and to help them overcome it. We got to talk to them and a lot of them where open and honest about their past and then talked about how God helped them overcome those obstacles. Another day, we went to a Christian camp and dropped off over 50 bikes for kids to ride.

Working with CommuniCycle was an amazing opportunity because they focus on relationships with others and growing in their community. Their ministry is amazing because they want to get to know people and it shows that they don’t care about money. Their goal is to leave an impact on others and to show God’s love to others.comm