Hi,

My experience with these offers is that corporations don't want to integrate their "goodness" into development work. Donating a bike built by adults to kids who are expected to earn a bike undermines the whole premise of the Recycle-A-Bicycle model.

If it were structured to create a job for teens in our program, then I would be much more enthusiastic about this. I know of one group that negotiated this type of arrangement. I would support and welcome this opportunity. However, the 2 corporations I spoke with were only interested in their staff building the bikes and paying a professional to supervise. Perhaps if it happened over the holidays and only small childrens' bikes were built, I could this as a community service project, and the donation of tools would be the incentive to participate.  I still prefer to hold out for a development model.

Karen

On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 12:47 PM, Bob Giordano <mist@strans.org> wrote:

We find great success, longevity and community building when the kids are
involved in building and tuning up the bikes, and even better when the
parent(s) have a role too.  They do this at our shop, and it gets them
familiar with our community resource.

Maybe the corporate folks get be teamed with a kid/family?

-Bob Giordano, Free Cycles Missoula

Adonia Lugo wrote:
> Dear collectivistas,
> I'm looking for advice from folks who use bike repair as a community
> building tool. What do you think about building bikes as a corporate team
> building exercise? I work for the League of American Bicyclists, and
> someone pitched a project to us called Bikes for Goodness

> Sake<http://bikesforgoodnesssake.org/>

>  that does this; they have teams build kids' bikes and then give them away
> at the end of the day. The dude doing this, Mark Smith, wants to partner
> with the League in some capacity to help hire a staff person who could
> coordinate these activities around the country, including hiring local
> mechanics to do quality control and connecting with local kids' groups.
> Does this seem weird to you? I told my boss I'd ask around about this
> model
> because something about it raises my hackles a little. I like the idea of
> paying local mechanics to participate, and it seems like there could be a
> more formal relationship with co-ops or community bike shops as partners.
> Then maybe participating in an activity like this could be an avenue for
> the corporate types to get involved with the bike community. At the same
> time, I'm wary of a model that frames needy kids as some tool for
> corporate
> team building.
> Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts.
>
> Thanks!
> --
> Adonia E. Lugo, Ph.D.
> Bicycle Anthropologist
> www.urbanadonia.com

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