Mel Nason is committed to providing wheels to children in need.

The retired Metro bus driver lives in Lynnwood and keeps busy with various part-time jobs, including being an usher at sporting events. While the work “gets me off the couch and away from the TV,” those jobs were all paused during the COVID-19 pandemic – and Nason discovered a new passion: finding and repairing bicycles and then donating them to kids.

Starting the effort in November 2020, Nason dubbed his operation Holy Spokes and gave himself the name “Big Wheel”. He first thought of the idea shortly after fixing up a bike he received from family last year – a gift aimed at helping Nason get out and also get exercise amid pandemic-related closures.

Nason had previously participated in several week-long Christian mission trips to Mexico and also often donated his income from the part-time jobs to Christian organizations that help children. The bike effort, he said, allowed him to take a more hands-on approach locally. “I had so much fun repairing that bicycle that my daughter had given me that I thought if I could buy bicycles fairly cheap, tune them up and then turn around and sell them,” he said. At first, he planned to put any profits toward mission-work helping others, which inspired the name Holy Spokes.

He quickly acquired three more bikes in the course of a day by scouring ads on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. “As I look back, I paid more than I should have for the first half-a-dozen bikes, but I got to where I was shopping smarter and the thing evolved into a kids’ bike giveaway,” Nason said. Many times, people selling bikes will significantly lower their asking price or even outright donate them when they learn about his charitable effort, he said.

Shortly after he began giving bikes away, Creekside Church in Lynnwood, which Nason attends, lent its support, setting up an online form where people in need can register to get a refurbished children’s bicycle for free.

Nason’s cause has inspired others to help him too. Wife Judy Nason regularly lets people know about the free bikes in a buy nothing group for the Alderwood/Lynnwood area on Facebook. Gail Orsillo, who attends the same church as Nason, also posts the bikes to a similar buy nothing group for Brier, as well as its general community group page — and she has even taken to finding bikes online that he can fix up to be donated.

Once he is contacted about someone in need of a bike, Nason allows the child to select a bicycle from his home-workshop’s inventory. Before the user returns later to pick it up, “I clean it up, tune it up and make it safe,” he said. He has even occasionally performed tune-ups on bicycles owned by the parents of children who receive donated bikes.

Since Nason began, he has obtained more than 150 bicycles and estimates that roughly 120 of those were provided free. “I was having so much fun acquiring them that I was bringing them in way faster than I was getting them out the door,” he said. He added that Orsillo “has been extremely helpful because she’s made connections where she finds bikes and she’ll pick them up for me.”

Orsillo said that once she learned about Nason’s efforts, she was happy to help out, and noted the community in Brier has been “extremely generous” in providing bikes. It has been rewarding assisting the mission of Holy Spokes because “I just love to see community connections and I love seeing people help people,” she said.

“Mel’s kind of the missing link in that chain of getting bikes in the hands of the people that need them and to have them function,” Orsillo added.

Nason has also invested more than time in his endeavor, having bought a variety of specialized tools and equipment, such as a wheel truing stand, to aid in tuning up the bicycles before donation. “I’ve been accused of being a perfectionist more than once,” he noted of his attention to detail, but said it allows him to “feel good about it” upon completion. He’s also been buying several commonly needed items such as kickstands, reflectors and brake cables in bulk. As a result, Nason’s setup now resembles a small bike shop with shelves full of tires and other parts surrounded by bicycles waiting to be worked on or donations completed for pick up.

“I do not let a bike go out of my shop without safety reflectors,” he said, adding that kickstands are also a top priority. “You can never be too safe and so I want to make it as safe as possible for the kids.”

Nason said he particularly enjoys seeing the joyous reactions of kids when they come to pick up their bikes. “It is very rewarding just to make a child happy and a lot of them it’s their very first bike,” he said, adding it reminds him of the fun and sense of freedom associated with owning his first bike. Some who have received donated bikes have even brought or sent him customized thank you notes that include pictures they’ve drawn to mark the occasion. “Things like that,” Nason said, make his efforts worthwhile, adding he plans to soon hang those gestures of gratitude up on the wall near his workbench.

“Mel is just such a generous person anyway,” Orsillo said, “and he has such a heart for the community. So to me it’s exciting to see something kind of grow organically within the community.”

Nason estimated he’s given away approximately 40 bikes, in the nine months since first coming up with the idea for Holy Spokes, and he still has many more currently in his shop awaiting tune-ups and/or new owners. “My wife has been extremely helpful” with this effort, and “I’m just thankful we’re in a position to help others,” he added.

People who know a child in need of a bike or who would like to donate a bicycle can contact Holy Spokes here.

— By Nathan Blackwell