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Local Realty Company Builds, Donates 150 Bicycles for Boys and Girls Club of Pasadena

Published on Monday, January 9, 2023 | 5:51 am
 

Pasadena-based real estate agent Eva Lin and her team built and gave away up to 150 bikes last month during her twice-a-year Charity Bike Build, a bike building and donation activity that Lin and her realty company, Lin Realty, have been hosting since 2018.

This latest Bike Build by the firm was the biggest so far in terms of the number of bikes built and donated. The event was held in partnership with Boys and Girls Club of Pasadena and Wish for Wheels, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that gives brand new bicycles and helmets to 2nd graders in low-income communities.

“Previously our biggest bike build was 100 bikes which we did earlier this year in May,” Joe Rock, the firm’s Managing Partner and Eva Lin’s husband, said. “But this time we tried to go even bigger, especially given that it was the holiday season. And so we built 150 bikes, purchased the bikes, built the bikes and distributed them this past December.”

About 120 families were organized by the Boys and Girls Club to be at the event to receive the bikes. The remaining bicycles that did not get picked up that day were donated to Pasadena Toys for Tots, for them to distribute during the holiday season.

Boys and Girls Club of Pasadena CEO Lisa Cavelier said it was a joy to get a phone call from Lin Realty asking if the club would like to receive free bikes for the kids and families they serve.

“And it was a wonderful day of teamwork and generosity,” she said in an Outlook Pasadena report. “Our kids and families loved it!”

Community volunteers, including past clients, who have been helping Lin Realty in the periodic Charity Bike Build also came again to help build the bikes. About 30 volunteers showed up in December; many of the volunteers were youngsters from the San Marino Boy Scouts Troop.

“Our vendors that we work with came out to help,” Rock said. “So it was definitely a group effort in getting the bikes actually built.”

Rock said Eva Lin’s inspiration to continue the Charity Bike Build over these past years came from their being parents to two girls and the fact that the firm is constantly helping families buy or sell homes.

“We have our own little girls, and just knowing that there are kids in the community that don’t have the same opportunities, and maybe never even had a bicycle or have the opportunity to have a bicycle, is something that we thought created a great opportunity for us to do something special for the kids in the community that don’t have as many opportunities as others,” Rock said.

After the 2018 Charity Bike Build launch, Lin Realty has conducted one event in the summer and one in the holiday season since 2019. The event was canceled in 2019 due to COVID-19, but they resumed the activity twice in 2021. In 2022, they had one event in May and the last in December.

Eva Lin immigrated to the U.S. with her two sisters when she was 13 to join their parents who had struggled to set up a restaurant business. She recalls how she had to learn English as quickly as possible and had to split her time between community college and helping her mother in a new business venture. Getting admitted into USC’s Business Entrepreneurship program was also a challenge, and having to work three jobs to pay her way was even tougher, she writes on her firm’s About page.

It was those challenges that further provided the inspiration to continue to help the less privileged, her husband said.

“This is something that Eva’s really passionate about having a positive impact in the community,” Rock said. “And she’s very grateful for the community’s support that comes together every time to make this event happen and brings a smile to the faces of kids in the community, so that they have a special gift that they might not otherwise be able to enjoy.”

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