Thorold resident Ed Pomeroy wants to help farm workers in Niagara-on-the-Lake. That’s why, on Saturday, Oct. 12, he’s hosting a bike collection event in Thorold.
“That's the only way they get around,” Pomeroy tells ThoroldToday. “It would be rare for a farm worker to have a car. Basically, it's bicycles. It has become pretty much the means that people have to get around.”
Pomeroy volunteers for Bikes for Farmworkers in Virgil. The organization was founded in 2016 by Terry Weiner and Mark Gaudet and operates as an outreach ministry of Gateway Community Church in Virgil.
At their bike shop in Virgil, a group of volunteers get together every week to collect fix, and sell bikes to farm workers, but Pomeroy says the local bike supply has been dwindling.
“Up until this year, we've always managed to just source bikes through our connections,” he says. “We would have a drive and we'd get 40, 50, 60 bikes — no problem. But we've kind of drained the supply, I think.”
Pomeroy first got involved with Bikes for Farmworkers seven years ago.
“They took me on, in large part, because I speak Spanish,” Pomeroy says. “They really know a lot about bikes and how to fix them, but they don't speak Spanish and half the migrant workers do. I think that I would be the least skilled mechanic of the group but I am clearly the most skilled linguist in the group.”
Every Thursday evening, Pomeroy volunteers his time at the bike shop at1665 Four Mile Creek Rd., in Virgil, where he helps farm workers get their bikes.
“It's great pleasure for me because it's another opportunity for me to practice Spanish,” he says. “It's a second language. I took it up when I was 68 years old. So it's been a work in progress.”
The volunteers at Bikes for Farmworkers fix up every bike that is donated and sell them to farm workers for $25 each.
“The $25 includes the fact that if you got a problem with the bike, we do repairs,” Pomeroy says.
It’s important to help farm workers as they do so much in the region, says Pomeroy.
“If we didn't have the migrant workers, we'd be eating California fruit,” he says. “They make a huge contribution to our personal comfort and we need to treat them decently. I think we should appreciate the fact they come here. It's an opportunity and it's a huge sacrifice. Some of them are away from home for seven months of the year.”
Thorold residents can repay that sacrifice by donating their bikes to Bikes for Farmworkers.
“Any potentially workable bike is attractive to us,” Pomeroy says. “I don't know how many are lying around, but I'm sure there's some.”
The bike drop-off event is happening on Saturday, Oct. 12 between 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. at 10 Pine Street North - Unit 6 in Thorold.
