Cailyn & Owen FitzGerald
Cailyn and Owen FitzGerald are 13-year-old twins who recently joined the leadership of Pedal Power, which awards bikes to honor roll students in lower-income areas. They sat down to talk to us about the organization, which will be collecting bikes at the Evanston Wheel & Sprocket and ten other locations throughout the Chicago suburbs on November 2nd.
What can you tell me about Pedal Power?
We’re an organization that donates unwanted bikes from North Shore families to Honor Roll students at Chicago Public Schools. As of last year, we also donate bike helmets through a grant from the Evanston Bike Club, so the kids can ride safely.
How did you folks get involved?
Pedal Power was started 11 years ago by another Wilmette family, the Basils, when their daughter Nicole was in third grade. Both Nicole and her brother Bennett went to college this year, and we picked up where they left off. Along with us, there’s the Eriksons, another family in Wilmette, and the Schleiters, who live in the Western suburbs, so that’s allowed us to expand.
How has the organization expanded?
When it started, there was just a single collection site at McKenzie School, and now we have over ten different collection sites throughout the North Shore and the Western suburbs, and this is the first year we’ve really expanded into Evanston. Wheel & Sprocket has been a great way for us to reach more people, and hopefully bring in more bikes this year.
Where do the bikes go?
The majority of the bikes go to the Cesar Chavez School, but then with whatever we have left, we’re able to help a few other Chicago Public Schools, so the more bikes we collect, the more schools we can expand to. And then we give the bikes that aren’t in good working order to the North Side Learning Center, where they take them apart and use the parts to help teach kids with disabilities how to build bikes.
Why honor roll students?
It’s something to look forward to in addition to having good grades. If you put all that hard work and effort into making the honor roll, you deserve a reward. Since this is our first year doing it, this will be our first time going to the ceremony when they actually give the bikes to the kids, and we’re looking forward to that.
What have you learned so far from this experience?
It makes you realize how fortunate you are, and it gives you a chance to help others who aren’t as fortunate. And on the technical side, we’ve had to do a little bit of web design to update the website, send out emails, hang up posters, talk to people--it’s a lot of work in a short period of time.
What kind of bikes do you want folks to donate?
Pretty much any bike! We give to all ages, so anything that’s in good working order will go to a student. And even if it isn’t, the Learning Center can use it for parts.