New Cycles

Consider them the fixers, but in a nonthreatening way. From giving new life to furniture pieces to painstakingly restoring artwork to repairing bikes through purpose-driven work, these local women are making the old new again.

Like a bicycle wheel, with its spokes radiating from a hub to the rim, Special Pedals connects its core mission with service to a much larger community. At its heart, and in the heart of its founder, LEAH SHERRILL, the nonprofit seeks to serve Wilmington-area residents with disabilities. In pursuing that mission, the program has built a whole community, using the repair and resale of bicycles as a way to build skills, boost confidence, and provide job opportunities for people with disabilities.

Sherrill got the idea that bikes might be more than just a means of transport when she was an undergrad at University of North Carolina Wilmington and doing field work, helping people with special needs find jobs that were meaningful and that paid a living wage.

“I worked with an individual whose bike was her primary means of transport and in need of repair,” Sherrill says. “I didn’t see a lot of bike shops in Wilmington and thought knowing how to repair bikes could be a marketable skill.”

Sherrill met with staff at UNCW’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, where she learned startup basics. A sponsor paid the fee to get her 501(c)(3), and Special Pedals was born in 2016.

Through bike shop Two Wheeler Dealer and John Pesaikes, who fixed bikes to give away, several in Sherrill’s special needs community began learning repair and retail skills. The purchase of a truck to use as a mobile bike shop put Special Pedals on the road to a future.

At Wilmington Brewing Co. with friends one day, Sherrill looked at the large parking lot and saw opportunity.

“I spoke to the owners, who said we could set up there as a mobile bike shop every Sunday. So, we’d come, unload everything, and just learn, work on, and sell bikes,” she says. “Whatever money we earned, I paid to the participants. Other community members volunteered to help us.

“Other breweries started asking us to come. I loved that because breweries are such communal spaces, and our clients had something they could talk to others about. The community liked us because we met so many needs: bike repair, affordable bikes, an easily accessible location, further education and employment for people with disabilities. Our participants were earning money that they had control over.”

The business grew, but Sherrill needed to reduce her time commitment because she was teaching full time and had started working on a master’s degree. In LINGAM JAMES she found someone who shared the organization’s perspectives and goals. That was almost five years ago. He led the search for Special Pedals’ shop at 320 Red Cross Street, and now manages its operations, including an internship program for prospective employees.

“The location of our shop is strategic; we wanted to be in proximity to the bus station,” James says, noting that many interns, employees, and customers depend on bus transportation.

Business is good but is seasonal, he says.

“We service fifty to sixty bikes a month and sell an average of twenty or more per month,” James says. “During bike season we sell out.”

To view more of photographer Madeline Gray’s work, go to madelinegrayphoto.com.

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