Newsletter - December 2006

Dear friends of Yellow Bike,

Last month we announced the start of a Capital Campaign to raise $300,000 to prepare for the purchase of a permanent home in the event that the City of Austin is unable to provide space for us.  Our main shop on 51st street is slated for demolition in late 2007 to make way for a road as part of the Mueller Airport Redevelopment Project.  This gives us only one year to secure a replacement for our main shop, which is the heart of the work we do.

Though we only have a year left in our main shop , we are doing more with the space than ever before.  Our main shop is currently open 6 days and serving over 100 visitors weekly. We have recently added a Saturday shop to give those that can't make it to weekday night-time shops   a more work and family friendly alternative.  Visitors at our shop are learning to maintain and repair their own bicycles, or giving back by volunteering on a number of our active projects. 

In an effort to expose new people to the shop as it is currently operating we are hosting an open house at our 51st street shop ( directions).  The open house will take place this Saturday, December the 15th, from 1pm to 5pm.  The event will also serve as a bike drive so we can collect raw materials to complete planned children's programs for the coming year.  We are accepting bikes of all sizes during the open house.  Of course, you can drop off donations any time the shop is open and all are encouraged to attend the open house, whether or not they have a bike to donate.

Throughout last month we focused our fundraising efforts on providing ways to donate during the holidays.   Read below to see how you can contribute to our goal this holiday season.

Thanks always for the continued support and have a happy holiday season.

-The Austin Yellow Bike Project


DECEMBER FAMILY OPEN HOUSE AND BIKE DRIVE - This Saturday, December 16th, we will host an Open House and Bike Drive at our main shop, 2013 East 51 st Street, from 1pm to 5pm.  We will be showcasing our main shop space, which hosts free bike repair workshops six days-a-week, as well as spotlighting our youth-oriented outreach work.  We will also be collecting bikes of all sizes to provide raw materials for our 200 7 kid's and adult programs.

The 51st Street space is at the heart of YBP's current endeavors.   Fully stocked with parts, tools and ten workstations, it hosts open hours throughout the week, during which anyone can learn bike mechanics skills while repairing and building bikes for themselves or for the Project and its related programs.   In late 2007, the building housing YBP's workshop is slated for demolition, in order to make way for a road leading into the Mueller Airport redevelopment.   This event is the perfect opportunity to see the current workshop operating at full capacity.  It will also be a great opportunity to talk to Collective members about YBP's plans for life after 51 st Street.

Representatives from three youth programs will be on hand to discuss both their recent work with kids and bikes and their exciting plans for the coming year.  Yellow Bike-Sponsored Citizen Schools is an after-school program that teaches the basics of bicycle maintenance to a small group of kids at Bedichek Middle School.  Tools for Life is another bike centered after-school program that will be working with Brooke Elementary, Keeling Middle, Pearce Middle, and Garza High Schools in the upcoming spring semester.  Tools For Life evolved out of Bikes Across Borders and gets support from Cultural Connections, the City of Austin and The Yellow Bike Project.  Bikes to Schools is a Yellow Bike program that works with nearby schools to get bikes to students who may not otherwise have access.  To date, Bikes to Schools has donated 89 bikes at four nearby elementary schools and has committed to 120 more this school year.

To ensure that all the programs go forward as planned, Yellow Bike needs used bikes of all sizes.   The YBP Collective encourages everyone to stop by the Open House to see the shop and find out more about current programs.   If you have a bike you'd like to donate, bring it to the Open House or to any open shop at 51 st Street.

WAYS TO DONATE DURING THE HOLIDAYS - We have arranged several ways to make it easy to donate during the holidays.  Our capital goal is to raise $300,000 for the purchase of a new shop space.  Your donation will enable Yellow Bike to continue serving the Austin Bike Community in a permanent home for years to come!  Remember that all donations are tax-deductible and, as always, you can donate in person or directly through our website.

• DONATION GIFT CARDS - Through our shop and several other stores and bike shops around Austin we have have available donation "gift certificates" for the Holidays.  T his is for someone you know who would love to benefit a local cause rather than receive a gift for themselves .  We would like to thank all of these shops for participating in our fundraising efforts.  The donation "gift certificates" are available at the following bike shops in Austin:
• Austin Tricyclist
  
• Clown Dog Bikes
  
• East Side Pedal Pushers
  
• Discovery Cycle
  
• Freewheeling Bicycles
  
• The Peddler Bike Shop
  
• REI (North and Central Stores)
  
• Waterloo Cycles
• Yellow Bike 51st Street Shop

• IGIVE ONLINE HOLIDAY SHOPPING TO BENEFIT YELLOW BIKE -    As a project, we heavily emphasise the re-use and recycling of resources.  However, as individuals, we're all likely to do some holiday shopping in the near future.  Why not send a percentage of your purchases back to organizations like Yellow Bike?  iGive.com arranges deals with many large online merchants (dell, apple, expedia, target, home depot... click to view list) to give somewhere between 1% and 4%.  So if you find your self doing online shopping over the next month and beyond, check to see if the merchant has an arrangement at iGive.
• DONATION DISPLAY AT REI - While shopping for gear at REI this holiday you will notice near the register a Christmas tree decorated with $1, $2, $5, and $10 cards that can be taken to the register and paid for.  The money collected by REI through the holidays will be donated to YBP.  Special thanks to Kurt Hill and REI for arranging to have us featured in their store.

Shop Schedule (updated for December)

* Red Hours indicate Volunteer Only Shop: Learn to fix bikes while giving back to YBP, earn a bike of your very own, or just help out. Personal projects during Open Shops shown in black on the schedule.
** Collective Meetings: Shop "closed" for collective meeting at our Main Shop (51st Street) on the 1st Tuesday of the month. Meeting begins at 7:30 pm. Open to the public. If you would like to contribute ideas to the collective, make requests, learn more about the project and its internal workings, or just get more involved this is the forum for you.

CONCLUSION OF THE BEDICHECK SCHOOL PROGRAM - Last weekend, two events marked the successful completion of the Bedichek Middle school program.  We would like to thank all those that helped to contribute to make the program a success: Yellow Bike Volunteers Stacia Bowley and Jessica Douglas, Citizen Schools, the Austin Cycling Association, and most of all to the kids who participated and their families.

The Citizen Schools Apprenticeship Fair was held on Friday December 9th.  At this event, students gave presentations on the work that they did in various after-school programs.   The group of 12 kids that participated in the bike maintenance apprenticeship gave out a 32 page repair manual that they created over the 10 weeks of the program and chronicles the bike repair skills and experiences of the participants.  The three bikes that the participants repaired throughout the program were raffled to other kids who attended the Friday event.  The kids who received the bikes were very excited since they did not have bikes.  The teams of 4 kids that worked together on each of the three bikes were very excited to meet the kids that won and would be riding the bikes that they had been repairing throughout the program.

Saturday's event was a Safety Rodeo put on by the Austin Cycling Association (ACA) for the kids that participated in the class and their school mates.  Yellow Bike volunteers were on hand to perform safety checks on all of the kids bikes that rode in the rodeo.  All the children who attended were fitted with helmets jointly provided by the ACA and Yellow Bike.  Two courses were setup for safety instruction.  The first was a fixed course that was an exercise in riding straight, turning and braking.  The second was a decision course where the kids rode around simulating traffic and one participant had to practice dealing with traffic and looking over their shoulder.

Stacia, one of the instructors, commented on the program after completion: "It was great to see the kids work throughout the semester in the class.  Toward the end they started making strides and connection about the repair work that they were doing.  When a student realizes that a head set assembly is pretty much the same as a bottom bracket except turned around without guidance, you can tell that they are really getting it.  It was also great to see the excitement of the kids answering parent's and teacher's questions during the Friday event and how the parents and teachers picked up on it and shared in the excitement"

Special thanks to ACA members who ran the Bike Safety Rodeo, Preston Tyree, Laura King, and David McKinney and the ACA for generously donating helmets to the kids who participated.  We commend their work in teaching kids important safety lessons of riding a bike.