Joe Bell's automotive students are helping others by putting their mechanical training to work at Highland High School.
“So, we’re gonna take a bike, put it on the table, assign it to a group and we’re gonna check the tires, the brakes, the chains, making sure everything is running good,” said Highland High Junior Jake Tillwach.
Students traded engines for the week, to tune up more than a hundred bicycles as part of a community service project.
“Really working on it and giving back yourself is a different experience,” said one student checking a tire for a hole.
The idea came to the class after seeing ABC15’s Second Chance Bike Drive in partnership with St Vincent De Paul.
Students say the class realized many of the bikes were being donated needed small repairs and jumped at the chance to lend a hand.
“We’re always doing cars so it’s good to switch it up you know, help out the less fortunate,” said another student oiling a chain.
Through St Vincent De Paul, the bikes will find new homes with families struggling with homelessness, low-income adults in need of transportation, and foster children.
“And that means a lot because my brother and sister are both adopted so they were fostered for a while, so I heard that and was like that’s really cool,” said junior Landon Griffiths.