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About
MISSION
Pedal4Life produces entertaining and educational content for public television. Our stories focus on art, culture, education, tourism and communities for the purpose of raising awareness, changing behaviors, and improving healthy lifestyles.
Pedal4Life also offers internships to those who aspire to work in the television and cinematic arts, with priority given to college broadcast journalism students and those recovering from opioid and other drug addictions.
OUR HISTORY
(2016 – 2017)
Pedal America executive producer and television show host, Ira David Levy, founded Pedal4Life in 2016 to help people recovering from opioid addiction to live more productive lives.
He would annually ride his bicycle in Project Hero’s Honor Rides. Project Hero is a nonprofit organization that uses bicycling to support 10,000 of our nation’s wounded veterans. At one point, its former president told Ira David more than 60% of veterans who had been addicted to opiates eliminated them from their lifestyles after they started bicycling with his organization.
That gave Ira David an idea: If bicycling can help heal wounded veterans, it can heal civilians too. Bicycling repairs damaged cells and increases the body’s natural endorphins; strengthens health, physical endurance, and emotional stability; and builds friendships that can cleanse a former addict’s world of shame and isolation.
(2017 – 2022)
Between 2017 and 2022, Pedal4Life used bicycling events to raise funds for its 10-week Pathway2Home bicycling program. We successfully worked with drug treatment centers in the Greater Chicago area to build bicycling into their patients’ recovery process.
Clients who completed the program received a free bicycle, helmet and other gear. Bicycles provide transportation to job interviews and jobs.
Pedal4Life also offered program graduates internships with the Pedal America TV series, opportunities to network, and support with writing resumes and cover letters.
(2018 – Present)
Ira David lived out-of-state from 2018-2024, teaching journalism and directing student media at Appalachian State University and Kansas State University.
Running bicycle programs from 900 miles away grew challenging.
In 2023 Ira David shifted Pedal4Life’s focus toward producing public television programming.
“With the federal government’s recently proposed cuts to public media, the need for producing quality programming for public television is critical,” Ira David says. “Corporate sponsors, grants, and private donors are critical to public television’s survival.”
Pedal4Life still has roots in engaging those recovering from addiction. We do this by offering paid internships with the Pedal America show and other projects for qualified applicants succeeding in their drug rehabilitation programs.
“Many people have no place to go when they leave treatment,” Ira David says. “Working as a paid production assistant and intern is a nice transition into the workforce. They learn responsibility, accountability, and grow into respectable stewards of their communities and our planet.”
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