Jessica Prince is ready to rid her garage of the "Iron Horse."

After five years of overseeing the Forest Preserve District’s Recycle Your Bicycle program as facility supervisor at Monee Reservoir, Prince said she and her husband, Bill, are eager to join the effort by donating his old bike. 

“He had it before I met him, and it’s a beast of a bike,” Prince said. “He bought a new bike, so the 'Iron Horse' will be donated this spring.”

Bikes can be dropped off during this year's spring Recycle Your Bicycle program from 8 a.m. to sunset on Saturday, April 12, through Sunday, April 27. Here are the three locations: 

• Hidden Oaks Preserve, Bolingbrook: The bike drop is located on the southwest side of the parking lot on a flat, accessible surface. 
• McKinley Woods – Kerry Sheridan Grove, Channahon: The bike drop is located in the parking lot.
• Monee Reservoir, Monee Township: The bike drop is on the turf immediately off the paved parking lot. 

Bike donations also will be accepted during the Spring Biking Kickoff With REI program from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 12, at Prairie Bluff Preserve in Crest Hill. Drop off donations to the trailer in the parking lot for the duration of the program. Please note: Bicycle donations will only be accepted at Prairie Bluff during the Spring Biking Kickoff. 

Bikes and bike parts can be in any condition, from brand new to beyond repair.

All collected bikes and bike parts will be donated to Chicago-based Working Bikes, an organization that refurbishes and redistributes bikes locally and globally to those in need of an affordable and sustainable mode of transportation for work, school, community services, recreation and more.

Prince said she knows her husband's bike will go to a good cause, as do all the bikes that are donated during the spring and fall Recycle Your Bicycle programs. 

“I am excited to donate because everybody wins,” Prince said. "The community wins, Working Bikes wins and the planet wins." 

The Forest Preserve's Recycle Your Bicycle program began in 2011. But no matter how many years the program has been offered, more bikes always come, Prince said. 

"The bikes still show up," she said. "We do a spring and a fall collection and we still get enough numbers for both after all these years to justify doing it. So, it's still a very strong  program." 

People like knowing their old bikes are going to a good cause, Prince added. 

"They'd rather do this than throw them into a landfill."