All year round, people bring outgrown and otherwise unused bikes to Bike Newport’s community bike project – where they receive a little TLC and find their way to new owners.

Bikes are restored and made road-ready by volunteers and by folks who earn the bikes through volunteering. Among the beach cruisers, road racers, and city bikes for grown-ups are dozens of bikes for tikes.

With an extra happy holiday push, Bike Newport’s elves cleaned and tightened up 46 sets of wheels over the last few weeks and brought the bikes to the Pell School to join Santa’s other helpers and surprises at the EBCAP-sponsored community toy distribution on Saturday, December 8th. Bike bows and shiny chrome brought smiles to lots of little ones who also left with helmets and “Roll Model” lessons on safe cycling.

Visit www.bikenewportri.org for more information on Bike Newport.

Ryan Belmore is the owner and publisher of What's Up Newp. He took over the publication in 2012 and has grown it into a three-time Rhode Island Monthly Best Local News Blog (2018, 2019, 2020). He was named LION Publishers Member of the Year in 2020 and received the Dominique Award from the Arts & Cultural Society of Newport County the same year. He has been awarded grants for investigative and community journalism, and continues to coach and mentor new local news publications nationwide. Ryan...