Warehouse Sale Follow-up (and other related news)

The warehouse sale was one heck of a success! Thanks to awesome volunteers, great work by staff and a whole bunch of customers, we raised over $4,400 for Bike Works. A ton of people who had never been to Bike Works before showed up for the sale. As an added bonus, we cleared some space in our warehouse and attic. A really, really wonderful day. Thanks to everybody for spreading the word, volunteering, and coming to the sale!


Speaking of warehouses, we have finally pulled the trigger on a new location for the Bike Works warehouse! While our current warehouse space has been great and has served us well in many ways, due to a number of reasons we have found ourselves with the need to move to a different space. After weeks of searching and plenty of teeth-gnashing and hair-pulling, we have settled on a spot a block behind Bike Works. If you heard a loud gushing of air late last week, that was probably our collective sighs of relief at the positive outcome of this dilemma.


Last, but not least, we are all so thankful and humbled by the amazing community response to our announcement about the burglaries. We have had an in-pouring of bicycles and parts, more monetary donations than usual, and about as many volunteer applications as Davey can process. Thank you to everyone and anyone that has helped us out in any way! You all have helped turn a negative event into an unquestionably positive one.

Burglaries at Bike Works

Bikes stolen from Bike Works yard – we need your help
We are sad to report that over the last few weeks donated bikes have been stolen from the yard behind Bike Works. The stolen bicycles were destined to be put back into the community in May at this year’s Kids’ Bike Swap. We lost a large pile of bikes – an estimated $1,500 value – that have been worked on since September during our volunteer repair nights and youth Earn-a-Bike classes and drop-in hours. With the KBS now just 4 months away, this is a big setback for us.

We are reaching out to our community to help! All of the bikes that were stolen were “adult” sized bikes for older youth (that are harder for us to collect, take longer to fix, and are worth more money). In the next three months, we hope to build our pile of bikes back up to what it was! Here is what we need:

• Good condition adult bikes - smaller mountain bikes (26” wheels) and road bikes (700 cm. wheels) especially.
• Good condition 24” wheeled bikes. If you have a bike to donate, contact Donald at recycling@bikeworks.org or call our shop during business hours at 206.725.9408 x3
• Volunteers who can repair bikes – specifically volunteers with shop level mechanic expertise. If you are interested in repairing bikes, contact Davey at volunteers@bikeworks.org or 206.725.9408 x2
• Any other donation (monetary or material) that can help us offset our loss. To donate to Bike Works, click here.

For now, we’ve improved the security in the backyard with more locks and tarps and are considering adding barbed wire (an additional incurred cost of $900). We have also spoken with neighbor businesses to help us keep an eye out when staff aren’t here, and are continuing to strategize about a long-term solution! We’d love to hear ideas if you have them.


2010 Classes Have Begun
On a more positive note, our Earn-a-Bike classes, Adult repair classes and partnerships have begun for 2010! Over the winter a volunteer helped us build a fourth workbench in our classroom, allowing us to increase the size of our classes and work with more young people. (Thank you, Lanham!)


Warehouse Sale
The Bike Works Warehouse has too much stuff! There will be a Bike Works Warehouse Sale, January 23rd 11am to 5pm. We will be selling parts and as-is bikes for low, low prices! This will help us clear up space in the classroom and in the warehouse as well as raise some much needed revenue. Cash only, please. Spread the word and come check it out!


Thanks for being part of the Bike Works family,
Bike Works Staff