LSSI AmeriCorps volunteers to refurbish bicycles | Community Spirit

HERRIN, IL (KFVS) - To celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day this year, AmeriCorps members who serve with Lutheran Social Services of Illinois’s Prisoner and Family Ministry are partnering with Marion Federal Prison Work Camp to hold a bicycle gathering and rebuilding day on January 21 at Hurricane Baptist Church in Herrin, Ill.

According to the group, the goals are to collect used bicycles to refurbish for returning citizens and their children, and to refurbish at least eight bicycles that day.

Anyone who wishes to donate a bicycle can drop it off at the Hurricane Baptist Church in Herrin between 9 a.m. and noon on Jan. 21.  Hurricane Baptist Church is located at 406 South Division Street.

LSSI’s AmeriCorps members provide services to people who have been incarcerated at least one day in their life.

The services include Bicycles 2 Work, which is a program that helps returning citizens and their children by giving them bicycles.

In this program, volunteers gather one day a week in Herrin to rebuild donated bicycles that are then distributed to returning citizens who are in need of transportation to work and to children who are interested in having a bicycle.

 “For people coming home from prison, a bicycle can be the first step toward independence,” said Jane Otte, executive director of Prisoner and Family Ministry. “Returning citizens who bicycle prove that they are ready to do what it takes to get and hold a job. And at this time of year, they really prove it.”

LSSI’s Prisoner and Family Ministry offers services for incarcerated persons at 25 Illinois prisons and jails, along with services for their families, including services for “returning citizens” – men and women who were previously incarcerated and are reentering the community.

For more information on the Prisoner and Family Ministry’s outreach program, contact Jane Otte, executive director at 618-997-9076, or at Jane.Otte@LSSI.org.

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