Sunday, October 11, 2009

Georgia Bike Rescue

New Project: a community-based, nonprofit venture that may actually get somewhere. If I get the support it needs.

I have started Georgia Bike Rescue, a little organization (just me right now) that accepts old bicycles to make new and give away. In celebration of this first day of the organization, I swiped the first bike out of someone's trash this evening. Kinda just happened upon it.

Anyway, gabikerescue.org is up and running, complete with analytics. The Facebook page has been created but no content yet. Please become a fan if you can stand the idea.

I had been thinking about doing this for a few months now, and the time came today to start something. I know I've started a lot of things without finishing them and I will never deny that. I just think this one can continue even without me, with the help of many local supporters.

What I can imagine happening is:

  1. I get a group of people together who like this kind of thing and feel that it would benefit the community.
  2. We collect bikes that are donated from around the county and maybe further.
  3. We get the good parts from the donations and make complete bicycles.
  4. We take the bad parts to the scrap metal place to get money.
  5. The money is used for inner tubes, cables, materials, etc.
  6. The finished bikes are given to local charities who then choose a recipient (in December).
  7. We do it all again the next Christmas season.
So there it is. We need some things from supporters, however. We (I) currently do not have anywhere to store the bikes or perform the work. We (I) could use some storage/work space that is at least semi-secure. I don't have any bicycle-specific tools or equipment, so those things would be nice. For now I'll try to garner support and resources from the interested people and I'll see where that gets us (me). It is hoped that I will have more to report at some point in the near future.

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