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Philanthropic Former Triathlete...

Sunday, 30 August 2015 00:10

By Patrick Larkin (lillienews.com)

After getting his prized racing bikes stolen from his garage, East Sider Jeremy Sartain turned the experience into a productive, community oriented venture to put tuned up bikes in the hands of kids throughout the East Side.

With the generosity of residents and the help of some kids from East Side nonprofit the Lift CDC, over 100 tuned-up bikes made their way into the hands of bikeless kids this summer on the East Side.

It all started when Sartain was prepping for his son's fifth birthday party on April 21, at their house in the Phalen Park neighborhood. As he was running around the house getting it ready for the event, he didn't realize his garage, with his two prized bikes sitting in it, had been left open....

When he finally realized the garage door had been left open, the bikes were gone.

He reported them stolen to police, and within a week, cops had tracked one bike back to a pawn shop at Rice Street and Larpenteur Avenue.

In hopes of spotting the second bike, Sartain decided to drive by the address of where the bikes were tracked back to, which wasn't far from his house. There, he saw a multigenerational household, with two brothers and their wives, grandparents, plus six kids, living in one run-down house.

As far as he could tell, he said, the mothers were the only ones going to work.  READ MORE