(bright music) - You can find the Bicycle Collective in Salt Lake City, Ogden, and St.

George.

The organization works to promote cycling as a sustainable form of transportation and recreation.

Thomas Cooke joins us now to share how you can get involved.

Hi, Thomas.

- Hi, good morning.

- Good morning.

So tell me a bit about the Bicycle Collective.

- Well, we are a Utah-based nonprofit organization.

We were founded in 2002, so we've been around for a while.

And we have three community bike shops throughout the state.

Our main location is Salt Lake City, but we also have a shop in Ogden and St.

George.

And a lot of people ask, you know, what's a community bike shop?

And it's a space where not only do we give away bicycles to people in need through one of our programs, but we have resources and classes to teach people how to maintain their bikes in a low-cost way.

- Why is this something that you felt was necessary in these communities?

- Well, there are a lot of people, especially in urban areas, who don't have access to a car, and a bicycle, you know, whether it's a child trying to get to school a little quicker or somebody trying to get to a transit stop to open up the radius of where they can have a job, a bike is just a fantastic way to get around and move around the city.

- And it's a clean way to move around the city as well, right?

- Absolutely.

Yeah.

Healthy, clean, good for the environment.

We also do some recycling, quite a bit of recycling out of our three locations.

So that's another component of what we do.

About a third of the bikes, and all of the bikes that we refurbish to either give away or resell are donated to us.

So last year, between our three locations, we had a little over 4,000 bikes donated to us.

People who believe in the mission or they just don't know what to do with their old unwanted bike.

About one third of those bikes have to be recycled and broken down.

They're not usable.

- That's incredible.

- Yeah.

- Well, there's so many ways people can get involved in the Bicycle Collective, and we have the information for you on the screen right now.

Just head to the bicyclecollective.org, whether you want to donate a bike or get involved in some of the classes or resources, you can find out more information right there.

I'm Liz Adeola, and thank you for watching Contact.

(bright music) Philanthropy, Arts, culture.

It's what brings us together.

Hi, I'm Liz Adeola, the host of Contact, a show that connects you with local events and organizations that serve your community.

If you work for a nonprofit and would like to be on Contact, please visit pbs.org/contact