TORRINGTON – Dennis Grubbs’ bike shop, DG’s Bicycle Repair, is filled from wall-to-wall with bikes, old and new, big and small.
Emmanuel Sanaah lives in Denver but hails from a small village in Ghana. He recalls his childhood there, where bicycles were the primary method of transportation.
Now, he sends bicycles more than 6,500 miles away via a large shipping container, along with other essentials, including towels and clothing.
“I came [to Torrington] and I was walking around the area, and I went to the bicycle shop to buy some stuff,” Sanaah said. “I told him I buy old bikes for people back in Africa.”
Grubbs said in addition to his shop on East 20th Avenue, he has a junkyard with even more bicycles.
“He came in and I told him I have another junkyard with about 1,000 bikes,” Grubbs said. “And he said, ‘I’ll take them all.’”
Sanaah and his family picked up another batch of bikes with a trailer on the back of his truck on Dec. 9, and they’ll send them abroad in two weeks.
