Local children got hands-on practice with bicycle road safety at the annual Community Safety Day in Port Colborne on Saturday, June 13, 2026, while a $500 donation from the Port Colborne Optimist Club will help a volunteer program keep putting refurbished bikes into the hands of kids who need them.
The free event, hosted by Port Colborne Fire and Emergency Services and presented by FirstOntario Credit Union, ran from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and featured a bike rodeo where youngsters could practise their cycling skills and learn safe riding habits.
During the day, the Optimist Club presented a $500 cheque to Broken Spoke, a volunteer bicycle refurbishment program that operates out of Port Colborne High School. The money will help cover the cost of parts like brake cables and new tires for bikes that are given away free to children and families locally and around the world.
Founded by Aubrey Foley in 2008 from his own home, Broken Spoke moved to the high school in 2015 and has since donated over 25,000 bikes worldwide. The program collects about 3,000 bikes a year from Niagara Region landfill sites and is now the only high-school-based bicycle refurbishment volunteer program in Canada.
The 77-year-old Foley, often called a local legend, still runs the program, which partners with 19 Niagara agencies and ships bikes as far as Cuba and Venezuela. Broken Spoke earned a North American Silver Award in 2018 for its recycling work and has expanded to include wheelchair repairs and specialty bikes for children with balance and mobility issues.
The Optimist Club, which received its charter in September 1986 and is part of a worldwide network of more than 3,000 clubs dedicated to “Bringing Out the Best in Kids,” has been a longtime supporter of youth programs in Port Colborne.
