Bikes are a ticket to freedom for children.

Owning one teaches responsibility, opens up social contacts and provides adventure, believes the founder of Bobs Free Bikes, a non-profit organization.

“It gets them active and looking real cool,” said Bob Mandel. “We just want to make sure kids have bikes.”

Mandel, a former Make a Wish Foundation executive, started the project last October in his garage but “we blew out of that right away.”

Before moving a year ago to Fountain Hills, he lived in Puerto Vallarta for 18 years.

A core of about eight retired individuals accepts used bicycles in need of repair. They also buy bikes at Goodwill, Salvation Army or other places with monetary donations.

Sheldon Johnson is a typical volunteer who fixes tires, repairs chains and replaces seats before the bikes go to a deserving youngster.

The original idea was to give a bike to a child who couldn’t afford one, said Mandel.

“But once we got started, other foundations came to us and wanted to work with us.”

Singleton Moms, an agency that assists single mothers with cancer; Family Promise, a shelter for homeless families, and groups aiding foster children and refugee families provide Mandel with names of children.

“Our target market got much bigger than the original concept that we were going to do.” His bikes are distributed Valley-wide.

The original goal was to refurbish and give away 52 bikes.

“We surpassed that in the fourth week so I changed my goal to 365 bikes the first year. We surpassed that in the third month. Now the goal for the first year is 1,000 bikes.”

The charity acquired its non-profit status last October.

“The challenge is getting more bikes. We will always have more kids than I can supply with a bike.”

He promotes the charity’s work through BobsFreeBikes.org and social media.

“I don’t mean to sound egotistical, but everyone likes what we do,” said Mandel.

His latest objective is to solicit sponsors to provide bike helmets.

“We take the mission of what we’re doing very seriously while laughing and having a whole bunch of fun doing it.”

Interested volunteers can contact Mandel at 480-226-1357 or bobsfreebikes@gmail.com.

“Please join us. Work hard, have fun and laugh with us,” said Mandel.