Macon Magazine

JACK WOOD OOKING AT THE NUMBER OF BICYCLES Re-Cycle Macon has provided to people in need of basic transportation since 2017, you would think they are all about building and repairing donated bicycles and passing them along. But they're not. Re-Cycle Macon does that – and does it well. But the group's true aim is helping to build community and thereby helping to repair people. It does that well, too. L JACK WOOD has a job now because he has a bike. Wood has a bike because someone donated one to Re-Cycle and their bike mechanic made sure it was roadworthy. Re-Cycle gave it to Wood, who is 60, after he worked a required five hours of community service to earn it. Wood said his five hours were spent cleaning a community garden operated by Centenary Community Ministries Inc., which runs Re-Cycle Macon and other community service ministries. A former Navy man, Wood said he's been around the world three times – his favorite spot is an island in the Indian Ocean – but in recent years came to a place in life where he couldn't even get around Macon. A mix of circumstances and ill-fated choices left him homeless with even public transportation economically out of reach. He said not many years ago, the only hard thing about getting from his then-home in Lizella to Macon was picking which of his three cars to drive. Now, he said he lives on "a piece of ground around Macon somewhere" and he chooses not to divulge exactly where. "But," Wood said optimistically, "now I have a job – a part-time job, anyway. It's across town from where I stay and I could never get there walking. With the bike, though, it's pretty fast and I'm not beat when I get there. e bike's changed everything, from getting to work, to stores, 'I GOT A BIKE AND GOT A LIFE BACK' RE-CYCLE MACON'S EARN-A-BIKE PROGRAM CREATES TRANSPORTATION AND BUILDS COMMUNITY BY MICHAEL W. PANNELL | PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATT ODOM 7 8 M ACO N M AG A Z I N E.CO M | F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 0 2 0

• Cover