One day in 2020 Kim Mai went to Centro Romero where she studied English. She had not gone there in many months because of the pandemic raging around the world. Kim Mai had an important test to take. She and her classmates were returning to the community center to take the test to see how much their English had improved since class started in March.
In Chicago, where Kim Mai lives, the weather in late spring is often very pleasant. The test was on June 17th. It was a warm, sunny day. Kim Mai lives near Centro Romero so she rides her bike to class every time she can. She rode her bike to take the test. She locked it to a bike rack in front of the community center. The test was one hour long so she was inside for a little more than an hour.
Before the test Kim Mai saw her classmates in person, many for the first time. At 11:15 she finished her test and left. She found a nasty surprise outside. Her bike was gone! In the short time she was in class a thief had come and cut the cable she used to lock her bike. They took her bicycle.
This was a very unlucky experience for Kim Mai. But was she unlucky? No! Her teacher, John, knew a very special man, "Bicycle Angel" Bill McGraw. Bill didn’t make bicycles. Bill didn’t sell bicycles. Bill acquired bicycles and gave them to students in Chicago.
John called Bill and told him what had happened. He was happy to help and he delivered a “new” bicycle to her the next day.
Fammu came to Chicago from India and was John’s student at Centro Romero, too. It was very hard for her to go to classes daily because she couldn’t afford $5.00 a day to take the bus. Sometimes she walked and sometimes she took public transportation. When John learned of her situation he told her that he could help her get a bike. Shortly after that she got a bike from Bill and could attend her classes every day. Fammu says she learned to travel the streets around Chicago by riding her bike.
Bill McGraw began giving bicycles away in 1993. He lives on the northwest side of Chicago where there is a small high school nearby. One day he saw some students walking with heavy books. He asked them why they were walking and they told him that they had no other choice. Bill had some bikes in his garage. He offered them to the school administrators so they could give them to their students. He soon began supplying bicycles to all the students at the small school. Over time he branched out and began helping students at local community centers, too. His bicycle repair skills have allowed him to take damaged bikes and repair them to give to people who need them.
Bill has helped many, many people get bicycles. He gives away about 500 bicycles every year! Sometimes he gets bikes from junk collectors who prowl the alleys of Chicago looking for useful “garbage”. If the bicycles are broken Bill repairs them.
Over the years he has established a relationship with a lot of property managers in skyscrapers in Chicago, buildings as tall as 50 stories. The people who live in these buildings often have a lot of money. They may change apartments regularly. When they move they don’t think about their bicycles and they abandon them in the storage area of the high-rise buildings. This is where Bill comes in. Bill tells the property managers he wants to give the bicycles to people who will cherish them. They will never move away and abandon them. They will use them and enjoy them. Since there are many community centers in Chicago he always finds people to share the bicycles with.
Kim Mai and Fammu’s teacher, John, has helped Bill give away over 90 bicycles since they met in 2017. Rosanne is another teacher at Centro Romero. She met Bill many years ago when he worked as a volunteer teacher there. Bill has given Rosanne’s students many bicycles over the years, too. Since 1993 he has given away over 10,000 bicycles! He has made thousands of people very happy!