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"Bike Lady" turns passion for bicycling into educating kids
By Sarah Webster, APP Staff Writer, July 3, 2009
Kerri Martin of Ocean Grove is known as the "Bike Lady" to some in Asbury Park.
That's not only because she uses a bicycle, not a car, to commute to work. She's also known because she's turned her passion for bicycles into Community Cycling, her programs to educate children and teenagers and to foster camaraderie among other riders.
Martin, 37, offers two programs that teach Asbury Park youths job skills such as bicycle mechanics, the value of volunteerism and work ethics. She meets with younger children at The Bike Church at Holy Spirit Church on Second Avenue from 4 to 7 p.m. on Mondays. She meets with high school students throughout the week after school or during the day in the summer at Second Life Bikes, her bicycle store at 701 Memorial Drive. In return for volunteering to repair bicycles, the youths earn a bicycle. Martin's idea for the bike church came from a previous job. While living in Brooklyn prior to her move in 2003 to the Shore, Martin worked for Recycle-a-Bicycle in New York City. The program teaches youths bicycle mechanics and offers job and environmental training. When Martin met the Rev. William McLaughlin in 2006 at Holy Spirit Church, she told him about her idea to salvage bicycles and educate children. He liked the idea and told her she could use the church's basement, she said. Martin spent a summer cleaning out the basement, and The Bike Church was founded shortly afterword. "One of the kids said to me right after we started, "Do bicycles have to go to church?' ' McLaughlin said. "No, but the bikes are at the church so you can come over and learn how to fix them and learn how to ride them safely,' " McLaughlin said he answered. The Bike Church provides children with a good sense of doing something positive while keeping them off the streets, he said. Martin also hosts a Road Bike Ride at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, open to anyone, leaving from Second Life Bikes. The ride started as a ladies' ride but transformed when men wanted to participate in it, Martin said. Riders sometimes travel as far as 30 to 35 miles during the event, she said. "I always loved bikes," said Martin, holding a wrench as she sat outside her bike shop, repairing a bicycle with some volunteers. "I moved to Germany when I was 22. The first thing I did when I got there was bought a bike. It was in such bad shape that I had to learn how to fix it before I knew how to speak German." People ride bicycles everywhere in Germany, she said. Family members often travel with one another by bicycle and carry all kinds of belongings, she added. "I don't have a car," Martin said, adding she gave up driving five years ago. "I have many bikes and bikes that hold a lot of things. I have a trailer on my bike and a cargo bike that actually fits a person on the back. So, I never felt a need (for a car). "I loved the idea of rescuing old bikes from the landfill and just giving them a new life," Martin said. "You can have a bicycle, but, if you don't know how to fix it, you're probably not going to go as far — or appreciate it as much. http://www.app.com/article/20090703/ENT/907030329/1031/rss09
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