Nonprofit Spotlight: Jack the Bike Man

Nonprofit Spotlight: Jack the Bike Man

Volunteers: About 180 donated time in 2024 to fixing bikes

Repairmen: 5 bike technicians run the bicycle repair shop

Gifting Bicycles: The charity gave out about 1,500 bicycles last year, a jump from the previous year’s 1,200

New Home: Seeking new 8,000-square-foot warehouse space

Bike’s Processed: Nearly 4,000 bicycles in 2024 that were then either donated, rented, sold or responsibly scrapped

What started out as one man’s effort to provide bicycles to West Palm Beach youth around the holidays has morphed into a nonprofit that’s helping many more, including adults, across Palm Beach County.

Samuel H. “Jack” Hairston III, who in the late 1990s founded Jack the Bike Man Inc., passed away in July 2023. But his team and legacy live on, flourishing beyond even his wildest dreams.

The charity, which officially became a nonprofit in 2007, still provides donated and repaired bikes to children. But the nonprofit also provides them to the unhoused, adults in financial need, those in recovery, and young adults who have aged out of foster care.

For them, “it’s a lifeline,” said Alejandro Hernandez, president and executive director of the charity. “It gives them hope when they don’t have hope.”

They use the bicycles to get to school, work, and doctors’ appointments without solely depending on public transportation, he said.

The Community Foundation awarded Jack the Bike Man a $10,000 mini-grant for 2025. It’s money the charity used for PR to get the word out that it’s still here after a February 2025 fire ravaged its old warehouse space.

The charity hopes to sell the old building and find a new home and has plans to expand.

The bicycle charity partners with about 50 Palm Beach County schools that are in predominantly underserved communities to distribute bicycles. It also works with other nonprofits, churches, and community groups that help adults, such as El Sol Jupiter’s Neighborhood Resource Center, Gulfstream Goodwill Industries, and The Lord’s Place, both in West Palm Beach.

At this point, Hernandez said the bicycle charity is giving out about as many bikes to adults as it does to children. And thanks to the Community Foundation and its donors, the nonprofit has been able to keep the bike donations and community support coming in — even after the recent tumult.

“We’re really appreciative for that,” Hernandez said. “People still see us as making a difference in the community.”