As I mentioned in this post asking you for bikes, I plan on keeping you updated on bikes donated towards our goal as well as updates on how our youth programs have been going. So let’s break this down:
Bikes donated since June 29th:
343!!!!
We went past our goal with 24 hours left to go! Thank you so much!!
Of course this doesn’t mean that we will stop taking bicycles as donations. We can still always use bicycles, but this means that the goals we have set for ourselves will only be easier to achieve. Thank you so much for your help. An extra special thanks should go out to Centric Consulting that donated 40 bikes this past week (as well as some helmets and other bike supplies).
This bike drive has also helped us to get better to reaching out to folks. Some of you have called us to arrange to get donated bikes to us. In the future we are hoping to continue this sort of outreach to increase the number of bikes we take in to save from the town dump. We like finding new homes for used bikes.
Some times those bikes find new homes through our retail shop that sells the bikes to raise money for our educational programs. It is a goal of the retail shop to consistently have bikes for sale instead of having an empty sales floor. By the shop being more successful, those of us on the programming side can accomplish more as well. As our programs have expanded this year we are reaching new heights. Last year 322 bikes went out to youth under the age of 16 for free.
This year isn’t over yet, but lets take a look at how far we are…
Youth Earn-a-Bike:
I’m going to update you on our year-to-date data to get you started before I start updating you week to week. Between January 1st and August 17th there were 133 bikes earned by youth.
In the past week 8 more bikes have been earned bringing the total to 141 bikes.
Youth Give-a-Way:
The Hub gives away bikes to youth younger than 7 years old since they are too young to begin working with tools. Between January 1st and August 17th 64 bikes have been given away to youth younger than 7 years old.
In the past week we got to go out to Consortium College Prep’s Back to School rally. At the rally we gave out 20 bikes to kids bringing the total to 84 bikes. We also gave out vouchers to other families present so they can come into the shop to pick up a bike. So we will be giving out more in the coming weeks.
Community Partnerships:
The Hub often works with other groups like City Year, the Mt. Elliot Makerspace and other groups that work with youth. Sometimes when we can and they ask, we give them bikes. Between January 1st and today we were able to give out 67 bikes that made their way to youth through our partners.
In the past week there haven’t been anymore bikes going out to partners. Heck, if we had the bikes to spare we wouldn’t be doing this drive right?
Total Bikes Earned or Given to Youth so Far This Year:
292
So in other words, in the past 8 months we were able to give out as many bikes to youth as bikes we have received in the past 2 months as donations. And don’t worry, we have no intention of slowing down just yet. Last year between September and December we gave out 134 bikes to kids. We only have 30 more bikes to match last years numbers. I think we can go beyond it by the end of 2012.
We can do this because you’ve helped us do this. Thank you so much.
But it isn’t over. If you have a bike in your basement or garage that isn’t being used, give us a call. We would love to find it a new home.