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Newsletter - May 2007
Dear supporters of Yellow Bike,
Bike month is here and we have already been involved in several events. We hosted a volunteer only week at our shop, held our second annual bike art show, and helped put on a bicycle carnival for kids. Now we are busy preparing for our birthday party on Saturday, May 19th.
May is a great month to be on bikes and we urge you to get out and enjoy it. Read below for all of the latest news.
Ride safe,
-The Austin Yellow Bike Project
BIKE MONTH EVENTS - The Austin Cycling Association (ACA) maintains a list of bike month events on their website ( view list). There you will find rides, bike-in movies, art shows, low-rider events, commuting classes, and bike to work day.
YELLOW BIKE'S 10TH BIRTHDAY AND BENEFIT PARTY: May 19th 5pm-Midnight at Ben's Longbranch BBQ -
We will celebrate our 10th birthday at Ben's Longbranch BBQ. We will enjoy the evening with music, BBQ, Beer, Movies, a Yellow Bike release, and lots of friends.
The evening will be loaded with local bands: La Mancha, Guy Town, The Hydmen, The Laughing, Cat Scientist, Opposite Day, Fiction and You Make Engine. Bands will be performing between 5pm and Midnight. We will also be showing videos and slide-shows of Yellow Bike's past 10 years throughout the night.
Admission to the event will be $5 or $10 for admission and a plate of BBQ. Children are welcome and get in for free. Proceeds from the event will go to help support the continued work of the Yellow Bike Project, including the funding of our new permanent space! Please come out to support your community bike project and to have a great time with friends. Ben's Longbranch BBQ is on 11th Street just east of IH35 ( View Map).
BIKE TO WORK DAY! - Friday May 18th is Austin's yearly Bike-to-Work Day. The goal of Bike-to-Work Day is to get as many people as possible excited about riding to work for their first time. After they see how easy, enjoyable and invigorating it can be, we hope that they form a life long-habit of it.
There will be FREE breakfast stations throughout the city from 7am - 9am. Yellow Bike is running a station in East Austin at our Treasure City shop located at 1720 East 12th St. Other locations include:
Downtown: Whole Foods Market. 6th and Lamar.
Downtown: Wahoo's Fish Taco. 509 Rio Grande
Central: Wheatsville Food Coop. 3101 Guadalupe Street
North Central: Thunderbird Coffee. 1401 Koenig Lane
North: Buck's Bikes. Jollyville one block north of Oak Knoll.
North: ACA and Clif Bar. Shoal Creek Blvd. at the Far West Blvd. bridge
South Central: Bouldin Creek Coffeehouse. 1501 S. First St
South: Bicycle Sportshop. 517 S. Lamar
South: Jack and Adam's Triathlon Shop.
East: Yellow Bike Project workshop at Treasure City. 1720 East 12th Street
COMMUNITY ART AND BICYCLE CARNIVAL - The Art and Bicycle Carnival on Saturday May 12th was a successful collaboration of several groups. Yellow Bike worked with Cycle Circus and Theater Action Project to put on a multifaceted kid and family focused event. There was music, dancing and a play performed entirely on stilts. There were also
beautifully decorated bike creations by Cycle Circus including a scorpion, praying mantis and an operational lemonade blender bike (view photos).
During the event, Yellow Bike donated 40 bikes to kids as part of our Bikes to Schools Program . Bikes for the program are donated to Yellow Bike and repaired by volunteers. People with unused kids bike have a great place to give them, volunteers get a free education in bike repair, and the kids receive a free refurbished bike. When kids receive the bikes they are equipped with helmets, light-sets, and locks to help keep the kids riding safe and for a long time. On Saturday we were able to send 40 happy kids home with their very own bikes.
Last year, the first year of the Bikes to Schools program, we were able to donate 89 bikes to kids at 4 elementary schools. This year, thanks to a generous grant from REI providing for helmets, locks and light-sets, we were able to give 120 bikes to kids at nearby schools. The Austin Cycling association also helped out by providing safety instruction at many of the give-aways and additional helmets for the program. Thanks to REI, the Austin Cycling Association, and the volunteers who made this year of the Bikes to Schools program a success.
We always welcome donations of bikes appropriate for elementary and middle school kids to help support this great program. Donations can be made during open hours at our shop and tax receipts are available.
BIKE ART SHOW - Our second annual Bike art show was great fun this year. Nearly 30 artists submitted their work to raise money for YBP. Thanks to all who contributed work, provided music, enjoyed the art and came out for a great time. Special thanks to Jessica Douglas for organizing, DJ Orion, DJ Kathrine and Gallery 1906 for providing the space. See you next year.
VOLUNTEER WEEK - Thanks to everyone who helped out with volunteer week. We know that dedicating the shop to volunteer work for a week is an inconvenience for many personal projects, but it made possible the many events that we were preparing for this month. Thanks for helping fix up 40 kids bikes for the Kealing Middle School Art and Bike Carnival and a batch of Yellow Bikes for release for our upcoming 10th birthday party.
CONCLUSION OF THE CITIZEN SCHOOLS MIDDLE SCHOOL APPRENTICESHIP - For the last 11 weeks Yellow Bike volunteers have been teaching a weekly after-school program through Citizen Schools. This is our second semester working with Citizen Schools at Bedichek Middle School (View Map) to add a bike repair and maintenance apprenticeship to their program.
Friday May 11th was the WOW event marking the conclusion of the apprenticeship for the kids. The students teach their peers, family and the public the real-world knowledge and skills they learned from their apprenticeship. Their presentation included lessons on bike repair and safe riding tips. It is amazing to see how excited kids can get about something that they have learned.
SCHEDULE - The Treasure City shop is now in operation and is already busy. We are pleased to see that the community is taking advantage of the new space. Come on out to volunteer or work on your own bike.
A brief reminder on shop etiquette: The shops are 100% volunteer-run community spaces that are meant to educate and empower people to ride their bikes for transportation. We expect that shop users volunteer time equal to the time they spend on personal projects. If you are unable to spare the time for volunteering we suggest a $5 donation per use of the shop. Thanks for making the Yellow Bike Project a stronger and better resource for the cycling community.
* 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.
*** Volunteers Needed: We need volunteers so that we can expand and maintain hours of our shops. We want to be open more often. Come to the main 51st street shop to learn how you can help.
TWO "IN-SHOP" KIDS CLASSES NEARING THEIR END - For the last 6 weeks we have been hosting two middle school classes at our 51st street shop. Six students from Sri Atmananda School came to the shop for six weeks and five have already taken their completed bikes home. Four students from Mendez Middle School completed their six week class and three of them have ridden off on bikes they built. Both groups of students are volunteering their time to the project after completing their own bikes. Congratulations the students for all of their hard work.
YELLOW BIKE TO SEND A REPRESENTATIVE TO THE NATIONAL BIKE EDUCATION CONFERENCE - This year the League of American Bicyclists conference will be held in Austin and hosted by the ACA. It is a gathering of League Cycling Instructors, bicycle coordinators from city and state governments, representatives of large group rides such as the MS150, and anyone else seriously interested in bicycle safety and education. We are committed to becoming the most effective bike education resource that we can be and look forward to meeting like minded individuals and organizations from around the country.
FIRST REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL MEETING - May marked the commencement of the Yellow Bike Project's Representative Council. The council will be meeting once a month to discuss the long term future and planning of YBP. We would like to thank the individuals from outside the organization who have committed to serve as chairs on the council for the next year. Thanks to Jennifer Duthie, a grad student at UT's transportation engineering program, serving as transportation chair; John Thoms, a current middle school teacher and founder of YBP, serving as education chair; and Gilbert Martinez, the Vice President of the ACA, serving as community chair. We are excited about the diversity of experience that they will lend to further the mission of the Yellow Bike Project.
CAN YOU HELP! ARE YOU AND ACCOUNTANT? - We are in the process of improving our record keeping to make it easier to apply for grants and complete our end of the year non-profit paperwork. We need professional advice for using QuickBooks to manage our accounts. We have many capable volunteers but no accountants and would greatly appreciate help in getting started.
We are committed to achieving long-term financial stability and know that this is an essential step. Our work in this area over the next several years is extremely important since we will be forced at the end of this year to relocate, and possibly purchase a new building.
We are always looking fo r ways to make Yellow Bike a better organization. If you are a photographer, videographer, realtor, publicist, or have any other special talents that you would be willing to contribute, we would love to hear from you. Email us at: austinyellowbike@gmail.com |
