Hello my friends and comrades,
Things have gotten away from me at the end of the year. During this holiday time I’ve been busy with both my given and chosen family while trying to hold things together at the bike shop. I hope to have some more energy after vacation here to make 2011 a really big year at Back Alley Bikes. While I am relaxing though, it is a good time to look back at 2010 and see how awesome things have been.
Let me start by throwing some numbers at you. Earlier this year Jack started a system to record volunteer hours. I have begun to take over the process now that I moved into the volunteer coordinator position. We’ve made changes as we go to make this number as accurate as possible and in the future I think we’ll do even better capturing the true power of volunteer efforts at the Hub. With that in mind, here are the recorded numbers that probably aren’t even as high as what was put in:
– We are averaging 36 volunteers per week
– Those volunteers average over 2 hours each week with 80 total hours of volunteer work each week total on average.
– The largest volunteer week was in June where we had 63 volunteers give 233 hours of their time for the Hub.
– By what we counted, the conservative estimate is that we have over 3,200 volunteer hours total for 2010.
These numbers don’t include friends of ours that assisted us with many random acts of kindness that keep the shop going. Whether it is telling a friend about the shop, helping us get a deal at the hardware store you work at, donating bike parts to us or simply coming out to our events to support us – we are so grateful to have all of you.
I wish I had taken pictures because, some of you may remember the junk pile that our warehouse used to be. Here is a small taste of what we have accomplished together:
– We scrapped over 3 tons of destroyed bikes and bike parts this year to make room for a more organized warehouse with new tire racks built by volunteers.
– We built a designated place to sort recyclables to reduce our waste.
– We have a designated welding and heavy tool space
– We built up and gave away more than 120 bikes to kids under 10 years old through our Bike Give-a-Ways
– We assisted youth in our Youth Earn-a-Bike program all the way into December when the youth stopped showing up. This was months longer than we have offered this program in the past. This is a huge success.
– We assisted the Capuchin bike shop and their guests there
– We received volunteer assistance from our partners in Fender Bender
– We made and hung up many beautiful signs to better organize our shop space
– We all got on the same page through our new volunteer orientations
– We provided assistance to the annual Tour De Troit
– We expanded our programs in schools around the city assisting students set up their own bike shops
and most importantly…
– We rode bikes and we assisted more people get on bikes
We have come a long way in a year and I’m excited for the future. This is the part where I remind you that I’ll be at Back Alley Bikes every Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm-8pm working on projects for the shop. Things have been slow lately and I would love to see more of you around. Here are some projects coming in 2011:
– BUILD MORE BIKES!!!!
– Build 2 more wheel racks and hang more wheels up
– Organize the parts wall and weed out broken parts
– Organize and build a more user friendly workshop
– Process new donations quicker to get bikes turned around and back on the street
– Giving away more bikes to youth
– Ramping up our training to volunteers so we can start the Spring with an even more successful Youth Earn-A-Bike class
– Seeing more than 3200 volunteer hours next year with more volunteer and training opportunities!!!
Alright, I’m going to close this email before I start sounding like an Obama voter. But seriously I am very excited about what we have accomplished. I really value the friendships I have made this past year. I often play friend, coordinator, cop, teacher, student and mechanic all in one night and I appreciate how you’ve all stuck around with me.
I know I may be a square to say it, but stay sober on New Years and ride your bike to whatever party you are going to (or at least sober enough to ride safely). It is a tradition of mine that my ride home is my first ride of the year. What a better way to start the year than on your bike? I can’t think of one. I hope it is true for you.
Next Volunteer Orientation: (Wednesday) January 5th
See you soon!
– Jason