HODGEMAN COUNTY – Over the past 7 months, volunteers form across southwest Kansas have collected bikes, bike parts, and pieces of bikes.

The salvage project, part of an effort by the seven member counties of the Coronado Crossing Resource Conservation and Development, helps children in many communities get a bicycle, according to Lee Ann Seiler, Director of Hodgeman County Economic Development.

Earlier this week, 200 bikes and bike parts were piled high on a trailer and sent to the Ellsworth Correctional Facility.

“I had 13 more bikes we couldn’t fit on the trailer,” said Seiler.

Inmates with the correctional facility’s Pedals for Progress Bicycle Refurbishing project repair the bikes and they are given to help those in need.

“We have an order list for kids in the community,” said Seilers. “Sometimes the kids need a larger bike and some adults who do cardiac rehab, for example, and can’t afford a bike are on the list.

“It’s a fun project and we have a lot of great volunteers,” she said.