Used bike sale in Champaign to aid Habitat for Humanity

CHAMPAIGN -- Need a good used bike or need to get rid of one in your garage?

Champaign Cycle will host the second annual Community Used Bike Sale to benefit Habitat for Humanity of Champaign County this weekend. The sale will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at Champaign Cycle, 506 S. Country Fair Dr., C.

The store already has about 75 used children's or adult bikes for sale, and is accepting consignments or donations from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today.

You can sell your bike on consignment and 10 percent of the proceeds will go to Habitat. Or you can donate the bike so Habitat gets all the money and get a tax-deductible receipt.

Last year, more than half the bikes sold the first day.

For information, send an email to usedbikesale@champaigncycle.com.

Also Saturday, local crews will work on the latest Habitat house, a "Women Build Homes" project at 607 E. Beardsley St., C.

It's the culmination of National Women Build Week festivities, with up to 40 women working on the house for Towanda Frazier and her family, to celebrate women working to end poverty housing all over the world.

The project is a partnership with the Illinois Campus Chapter of Habitat and the City of Champaign Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

Towanda Frazier, born and raised in Champaign, now lives in a rental house in Urbana with her three children, ages 13 to 21, as well as her 1-year-old grandson. But she is ready to take on a mortgage and the responsibilities of being a homeowner, according to a Habitat profile.

The entire family has worked with Towanda on her "sweat equity" hours for Habitat, required of anyone building and buying a Habitat home.

Frazer said her family believes in sticking together. She is the youngest of six girls, and one of them encouraged her to apply for a Habitat house in 2008.

Frazier works nights as a custodian at Parkland College, which makes it hard to spend as much time as she'd like with her children, Courteney, Malik and Mo'Neya. Courteney, 21, who has a 17-month old son, would like to be a nurse. Malik loves sports, and Mo'Neya, 13, loves to cook. Towanda Frazier hopes to go back to school someday to get a degree in social work.

Asked what would change if she owned her own home, Frazier answered, "Everything."

"I want to have something for the kids to have to call home I want them to be excited to be able to decorate their own rooms," she told Habitat. "And I want a backyard for a swing set for my grandson!"

Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit Christian housing ministry that works to eliminate poverty housing around the world. Its home-building program provides first-time buyers with affordable houses through no-interest mortgages.

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