The surprising path that led to the Northern Valley Industries bike program
The program provides bikes to people who need it for transportation
Bill Miller and Dennis DeNuccio were almost in disbelief when they were led to a loading dock area at Northern Valley Industries.
Miller, a retired police officer, yoga teacher and bike mechanic, had started the program a dozen years ago, almost by accident. The program, once housed at The Neighbors’ Place when the non-profit lived on Scott Street, fixed up bikes to give to folks The Neighbors’ Place served. The idea is that those folks could get bikes to help with transportation needs.
The program moved around to several locations, sometimes practically operating out of their garages and even once in the former JCPenney building without heat or running water before the mall was torn down.
So when Sherri Waid, president of Northern Valley Industries, walked Miller and DeNuccio through the yellow-walled factory with work tables and colored bins to the loading dock where the bike program now resides… to say they were pleased is an understatement.
"She takes us to this indoor loading dock area,” Miller recounts. “It's heated. It's got bathrooms all over the place... We thought we’d died and gone to heaven."
That the program is doing good in the community — run by folks who could be spending their twilight years on the golf course but instead are dedicating that time to others — isn’t in question. But the story of how the bike program came to Northern Valley Industries is hardly one without plenty of twists and turns.
