As Emmett Kaake wandered the halls of Alameda High School with his good friend Fischer Davis one day, they joked around about creating a recycling club. What started as a joke turned into a real passion.

"What would we recycle?" Davis asked. "Not just plastic bottles, maybe something more interesting, like bikes."

The pair decided to start collecting used bicycles from generous donors in the Alameda community, fix them up and give them to low income kids in the 510 area code.

The idea didn’t seem too irrational as both friends considered themselves fairly competent mechanics. Not to mention, Davis’s dad recently closed a bike shop and was getting rid of an excessive amount of bike parts.

Soon a third friend, Stephen Giuntini from St. Mary’s High School in Albany, was eager to join. The group suddenly stopped joking around and made Instagram and Facebook pages, a website and held their first bike drive. They collected a total of nine bikes.

Adding to the success, Davis’s dad agreed to supply the group with a no-cost storage locker for three months. The group is currently in the midst of becoming a non-profit organization and is looking for the right charity to partner with to donate the bikes.

Visit the web site at recycle510.org or like Recycle 510 on Facebook.