NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – On any given day you can find Meg Gholson giving a little TLC to bikes a the Recycle Bikes for Kids shop in North Little Rock.

“Sometimes we get a bike that’s not really rebuildable, but we try to harvest all of the usable parts off of it so that we can use them on another bike down the line,” Gholson said.

She is the program manager of Recycle Bikes for Kids. The group accepts donated bikes and then has volunteers repair them. After they’re fixed up, they give the bikes to kids under 16 years old for free.

“Bikes are freedom, man. They’re so important to get kids out from in front of the TV, get them exercising,” Gholson said. “There’s also been some studies that show biking helps improve focus as far as school work and things like that go.”

The nonprofit started in 2008 after the organization’s founder, Ron King, saw a news article about a fire station collecting bikes for kids during Christmas.

“He was inspired and set a goal for the following Christmas to have collected 100 bikes to give out to the community,” Gholson said. “Well, a year passed and he had 300 bikes and realized that this mission was bigger than one man and Recycle Bikes for Kids was born.”

Just last year Recycle Bikes hit a milestone of donating its 20,000^th bike.

“That was a really big milestone. We probably average about 1200 to 1300 bikes a year,” Gholson said.

Rainwater, Holt and Sexton want to make sure even more kids are able to receive a refurbished bike. That’s why the law firm is honoring Recycle Bikes for Kids with the Difference Maker Award.

“Meg, it’s a pleasure for Rainwater, Holt & Sexton to give you this check of $1,000. Thank you so much for what you’re doing to help kids in our community,” Mike Rainwater said as he presented the check to Meg and Recycle Bikes for Kids.

Recycle Bikes for Kids is always looking for volunteers to rebuild bikes or organize the shop. If you’d like to learn more about helping Recycle Bikes for Kids, just CLICK HERE.