Paul‘s brother Dan is really into tinkering with mountain bikes (and road bikes too, pretty much anything with two wheels he can get his hands on) and he recently told me about a “Bike Church” operating in downtown Philly. Apparently the place is run out of St. Mary’s Church on UPenn’s campus and has free shop space for working on bikes. They even sell used bikes and bike parts from donated rigs. Dan has built a couple bikes there and says they really have some interesting classes and activities going on.
I’m sure there are plenty of other cycling-related non-profits out there and unfortunately my discussion about cycling volunteer opportunities fell flat on the singletracks forums. One that comes to mind is the Yellow Bike program in cities like Austin where people fix up bikes and leave them for urbanites to use for one-way commuting. There are also non-profits set up to refurbish old kids bikes and distribute them to needy children. I would love to see something similar to Girls on the Run for introducing kids to positive lifestyles through mountain biking (though I imagine the liabilitywaivers for a project like this would be massive).
I’m opening up this post (despite the threat of spam bots) to hear about any mountain bike related non-profits or volunteer organizations you’re a part of. Feel free to share any ideas for ways mountain bikers can give back to the community.
2 Comments
Apr 23, 2007
good job!...
Feb 1, 2007
my boss at Girls on the Run forwarded me your blog because I used to work at a cycling non-profits geared towards getting kids on bikes. There are some really wonderful programs out there--I worked for a place called Bike Works in Seattle where we had a version of the popular "Earn a Bike program". I taught kids how to repair bikes and for completing the 9 week program in bicycle mechanics, they "earned" a bike of their own and got to select a used one from the shop to fix up and keep. Alongside the bike mechanics element we took them on rides during the week and weekend. There are several Earn a Bike programs across the country that you could reference.
Another great program is Trips for Kids. Their mission is to get as many kids out on mtn bike rides as possible--especially those who might not ever be in a position themselves to get into the sport. Trips for Kids is based in CA, but has chapters around the country.
Hope that helps!
jeanne