Mount Vernon Club Member: "Bike Doctor"

by Bruce Malkin

Charles R. Jones, better known as the "Bike Doctor", is the newest member to join the Mount Vernon Kiwanis Club, and has been involved in community service for several years now.  After retirement as a U.S. Army Colonel, Charles has  found a new career in reconditioning donated bicycles and then giving these like-new bikes to children whose families cannot afford to buy them and to a few adults who use them to commute to work in the Mount Vernon community.  He also tries to include a helmet with each bicycle gift. 

Charles joined Mount Vernon Kiwanis when he saw how the Club fully supported his work as well as a wide range of other community service programs.  He will be officially inducted into the Mount Vernon Kiwanis Club at its 56th Anniversary dinner party at the Mount Vernon Country Club on Wednesday night, October 7.  Since August, Charles has donated 27 bikes to Creekside Neighborhood Community Center, 41 to Good Shepherd Housing, and several to New Hope Housing.  We are working next with Sacramento Neighborhood Center to arrange an appropriate bike donation to the children that use its facilities on a regular basis for delivery later this month. 

 

If you are interested in volunteering as a member of our Mount Vernon  Kiwanis Club or wish to be an Individual or Company Sponsor for 2010, please see our website at www.mtvernonvakiwanis.org or call 703-360-7725.

Pictured above Charles (at right) with Tom Barnett, Program Manager at Good Shepherd Housing, at the recent delivery of reconditioned bikes for the children of the Good Shepherd Housing families.