“You can only get as far as your feet can carry you, you feel limited and you’re going to stay limited as long as you feel that way so we’re just trying to change that,” says Andre Angelle, president of non-profit organization, Bike Lafayette.

On Saturday they teamed up with Lafayette Consolidated Government, and through the ‘Debris Drop’ project, they were able to obtain 120 bikes to recycle.

“We plan on refurbishing these bikes and distributing them to the needy through various different outlets in Lafayette,” said Angelle.

And aside from helping the community by donating the refurbished bikes, Bike Lafayette is hoping to leave a green footprint by preventing the extra bike parts from ending up in the landfill, “It takes about three bikes to make one that functions. And the two that aren’t salvageable can be recycled once they’re stripped down for parts,” 

Angelle says he and his team are donation-based, so anything needed to fix the bikes is typically collected by those involved in the organization or anyone willing to help, “The more donations we can collect, the more bikes we can put out, so it’s a snowball effect. And our goal is to give out a bike a day.”