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When Dale Bishop's wife told him to get a hobby, one thing immediately came to mind.
"I remember growing up and having my first bike, that was pretty cool man. And the taller the sissy bar, the more prestige you had in the neighborhood," Yellow Bike Program founder Dale Bishop said.
But Bishop had noticed that many of the kids in his neighborhood didn't have bikes of their own. So he decided to print up some flyers with a simple request.
"So we placed them all over town asking them to donate their old bikes to us. Well, within two weeks I had 50 bikes in the back yard and boom, we were off to the races," Bishop said.
Over the past 17 years, the program has taken in over 80-thousand bikes. With some TLC and a whole lot of elbow grease, eight thousand of them have ended up back in the community.
"At the end of the year I like to get everything fixed up and we donate it to Make a Wish Christmas Trees, and Angel Trees, and Toys For Tots," Bishop said.
It's not just kids who benefit from the Yellow Bike Program.
"I tell you what, with the price of gas anymore nowadays it seems like it's a logical sense of transportation to get to and from work," Bishop said.
Many of the people who end up riding the refurbished bicycles work to fix them as well, giving them a sense of ownership while teaching them the basics of bicycle maintenance.
"Depending on the bike itself, if it's an expensive bike I'll have them come back the following Saturday. So they basically work eight hours to earn a bike," Bishop said.
In spite of the impact Bishop's program has had across western South Dakota, he's not about to take credit for the work.
"This is the Lord's program and I'm just the middle man," Bishop said.
Visit the Yellow Bike Program's website to learn more about how you can help.
