Volunteers repair and deliver “heart bikes” during the holiday season

TAMPA, Fla. — If you’re thinking about getting a loved one a bike for Christmas, instead of going to a store, why not go to a ministry? This is what the Church of the Sacred Heart suggests. This Saturday, their Bikes from the Heart program is hosting their biggest fundraiser of the year.

What was once a nuns’ convent at Sacred Heart Church is now the Bikes from the Heart repair shop, which has restored more than 1,200 bikes over the past two years, delivering them to families in the need throughout Tampa Bay.

Tom Henry and Tim Eves started Bikes from the Heart because they saw a need in the community that could be solved, literally, with a little elbow grease, a few tools, and a lot of heart.

“If only the nuns could see us now, we would definitely occupy their spaces, but I think they would appreciate our mission,” Henry said.

From homeless shelters to schools to individual families, Bikes from the Heart is always looking to provide bikes to those who cannot afford their own set of wheels.

“On our application, we ask them, ‘Why do you need a bike,’ and I was talking to a woman, and she looked at me and she just let out a big sigh: ‘I’m just tired of walking ,’” Eves said.

Inside the former Sacré-Cœur convent, bicycles are lined up in different rooms, some ready to be repaired, others awaiting delivery.

“As you go through the convent you will see the chapel, we have stored a lot of our reconstructed bicycles in the chapel, you can go upstairs, we have bicycles stored where the nuns slept and lived,” Eves said.

Everything is made possible thanks to a team of volunteers like Tim Monks.

“I have a rim here that was pretty much bent in half that I’m fixing, and it’s just fun to take something that wouldn’t work, and voila, now everything’s good as new,” said Monks said.

This Saturday at 9 a.m., in front of Sacred Heart Academy, located at 3515 North Florida, they will be hosting a special bike sale. This is their biggest fundraiser of the year.

“Road bikes, mountain bikes, children’s bikes, we will sell them or give them away in exchange for a donation, and then all the money from the sale of these bikes will be reinvested in the purchase of parts and tools . everything else,” Monks said.

Inside the repair shop, a wall is filled with photos of community members who received one of their bikes. They say the more people who support their cause, the more photos they can add to the wall.

“This woman here in the corner got one of our very first bikes, and she rode on a cruise ship to Sarasota,” Eves said.