In short, we do this;
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0HJNUHA3wmIMnFLRjVWVk9hUFk/view

So here in Winnipeg the community bike shops have had an agreement with the city landfill for the past 7 years where they put aside all the bicycles in the scrap metal area and we go out there once a month to sort/strip and harvest them.

For 3 years we mostly scrapped the 1000s of 20" and under kids bikes that we didn't have the capacity to repair or store.  Four years ago we came up with the idea for Cycle of Giving, a 24 hour kids bike building marathon.  We invite volunteer mechanics from the city's 7 community bike shops, the for-profit shops, and anyone else who wants to come out to do a shift to spend between 6-24 hours building as many kids bikes (20" wheels or less) as they can.  Last year we built 315 bikes in 24 hours and distributed them, free of charge, along with helmets and hand-made cards, to 14 different inner city youth service agencies.

It's a fundraiser too, although we never seem to make much money (this year we got sponsors to make ends meet).  But it's a damned good time with great bands (this year via the pedal powered sound system), amazing food, lots of glitter and eggnog and a whack of rad folks drinking too much coffee and slinging wrenches all night long.  We always get great media too.

The remaining kids bikes go to the bike repair vocational program for folks recovering from addictions in the local correctional facility.  More details on that in some other email.

Point is, annually we manage to turn those 1500 kids bikes in the landfill into 1000 working bikes for youth under 10 years of age.

If anyone wants any other details on how we do this, shoot me a personal email, as I don't read my thinktank often enough.

You can also see our website for some info;
http://thewrench.ca/?page_id=1492

No sleep til Monday!

--

Geoff Heath, Mechanical Director
The Winnipeg Repair Education N' Cycling Hub
1057 Logan Ave. Winnipeg, MB  R3E 3N8
www.TheWrench.ca

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