The final AiMHi bike sale of the year, held at their Kerry Street location on Saturday. Photo 250News

Prince George, B.C. – Several people took advantage of the final AiMHi bicycle sale of the year to acquire some revamped wheels while supporting the not-for-profit organization.

Peter Campbell, the program manager with Infinite Employment Solutions at AiMHi, says they started the sale with close to one hundred bikes “and we sold over half our inventory for sure.  Bikes starting from $5 and we’ve had some that we’ve sold for $250, $300.”

Campbell says “the money goes to support our bike warehouse program.  It’s a training program and the individuals who are participants in our employment program we give an opportunity to run the warehouse.  They help with bringing the bikes out, doing the sales transaction, completing the invoices and money transaction as well as when we can, some small bike repairs.  And so the dollars go back into supporting this program.”

He says there are four people in that training program, “two of whom have found employment out in the community.  Not necessarily in a bike shop, but community employment.”

Campbell says the bike sale, which has been running for at least five years, is quite popular in the community.  “Oh for sure.  Today we had some individuals come in to get new bikes for their kids as they’re growing out of their (old) bikes.  There’s a pile of bikes over there as a matter of fact that we’ve received as donations.”

“People can get good value for their dollar.  We negotiate some of the prices if someone is keenly interested in a bike but most people walk away quite happy.  They might find a bike that’s a little rough around the edges that they can take to a shop, get tuned up and then they have a quality bike.”

AiMHi has a partnership with the City of Prince George and the RCMP and we receive the bikes from them as well as community pick-ups.  We’re operating the 529 Garage program and it’s affiliated with the RCMP.  If a community member reports a lost or stolen bike they get ahold of the RCMP, who direct them to us.  If we have that bike in our warehouse it will be returned to the person.”

“If a community member calls us directly (about an abandoned bike) we’ll go pick up the bike, store it for a minimum of 90 days, provide the serial number and registration to the RCMP to run through their system to see if someone has reported it stolen and then we can return it to them.  After 90 days if its in our possession we can then sell the bike.”

“And we register the bikes with the 529 Garage program so all the bikes here are ready for sale, they have the 529 shield on it and, when a person purchases the bike we receive their email from them and we transfer the bike ownership over to them.”