By Richmond News |
Students at Steveston-London were tinkering away on a half a dozen bicycles in their shop class on Tuesday morning — and the fruits of their labour will benefit recently arrived refugees in Richmond.
After a settlement worker, Inas Elmenbbawi, told tech teacher Simon Nowak how refugees were struggling to get around Richmond — often the affordable housing they find is in rural areas of the city — Nowak fixed up an extra bike he had and Elmenbbawi delivered it to a family.
Nowak was then working at McNair but he has since moved to Steveston-London.
So far over the past couple years, 17 bikes have been delivered to refugee families — some are being used by kids to get to school, others by adults to do grocery shopping, but some smaller bikes have been fixed up so kids can have fun riding around their neighbourhood with their Canadian peers.
Nowak’s transportation class is currently fixing up six more to give out to needy families.
As part of the transportation class, students learn about aviation, cars, small engines and bikes.