Every kid loves bikes and wants one—no matter where it comes from.
Derrick Edgerly is a San Quentin inmate firefighter who also is involved in the bike program.
Local police departments give the bike program broken down bikes. Inmates, like Edgerly, refurbish, then donate the bikes to needy children.
“It’s always a pleasure when I see those bikes, because I know that they are going back to kids that deservingly need them,” Edgerly says. “Sometimes the bikes require a lot of maintenance. Each year we refurbish enough bikes to give about 20 to four or five different organizations that work with kids,” he added.
Edgerly’s latest work was done for an organization called Relay for Life. Correctional Sgt. Weaver asked Edgerly if he could build a mother/daughter bike set in support of an auction for breast cancer research.
Edgerly said the project made him feel useful. “I’m sure everyone knows someone that’s been touched by cancer,” he added.
Inmates Glen More, Alcaraz Reyes and Armando Mendez assist Edgerly in refurbishing the bikes.