By Davey Davis
Funds Raised at Bike Prom Pave Way to Permanent Expanded Hours in Salt Lake Shop.
The Bicycle Collective is proud to announce that we are expanding our summer Open Shop hours in our Salt Lake Community Bike Shop. The Collective juggles many different programs, from teaching Earn-A-Bike to selling used parts. While just a part of what we do, the Open Shop is the greatest resource we offer the community at large. It is a space for learning mechanics as you volunteer, working on your own bike, purchasing bikes and bike parts, and meeting other cyclists from every walk of life.
Until recently, financial constraints and conflicts with other programs have kept Open Shop to just 3 times a week. With our new dedicated Earn-A-Bike classroom, the conflict is mitigated. Furthermore, this year’s Bike Prom was more successful than ever, raising $9000 for our programs. These funds allow us to expand to provide Open Shop Tuesdays-Sundays, Wednesday women only. Monday will still be volunteer only, but we hope to accommodate many more learning and casual volunteers on the slower Open Shops and provide a less hectic learning environment during our busy season.
Not only do expanded hours allow us to serve the bicycling community better, they also enable our least seen but most important patrons: the disenfranchised not-by-choice cyclists who want to use our shop to stay mobile, but can’t work around our limited availability. Your support has enabled us to better serve them, too!
Meanwhile, in Ogden…
We’ve got a new roof! The volunteers in Ogden raised a ton of money at our Gear Swap in April and immediately spent every weekend tearing off the existing roof down to the bare rafters. At times we had 16 volunteers daisy-chaining away old shingles. Kendricks Brothers, a local roofing firm donated the labor for the rebuild, and several other companies came through with tools and supplies. From here on out it’s easy street, but we still need your help! Come by Saturdays to help out.
Additionally, we are looking for fixtures, bicycle racks, double-tiered bike stands, cabinets, milk crates, and the like.
For the complete scoop on the expansion visit Bicyclecollective.org, including start date and hours. Check the Ogden Bicycle Collective’s facebook page for specific project updates. Thanks for helping us achieve our mission.
