Spring Update and Fundraiser

The weather has turned the corner and we are back into biking season! Well, some of us bike all year long, but now it’s just more pleasant. Some Spring updates from the Bike Bank:

Fundraiser

• Fundraiser coming Thursday June 1st in conjunction with the Cruisin’ Pueblo ride at Walter’s. Meet at 6pm, ride goes at 6:30, back to Walter’s by about 7:15 for games, prizes, bike raffle, silent auction on mystery boxes (???), gourmet cupcakes, and GCBB merch all available for donation. Please bring cash or check, or we can do Venmo – no cards yet. We’ll have GCBB T-shirts again with a new design (and some bigger sizes). Steel City Café will be onsite and they along with Walter’s will be donating a portion of proceeds from sales that night. Come support small businesses who support the community!

GCBI

• We are most of the way through the Green Chile Bike Institute, our foundation-funded instructional program. So far 12 needful community members have worked to complete the 20-hour curriculum, earning a bike, some skills, and a $200 stipend for their efforts. A few have even returned to volunteer with us after they finished!
• We are hoping to offer one or two more class cohorts this summer, one will tentatively be a ladies-only course. If interested, call or text (719) 283 – 6039 or email greenchilebike@gmail.com

Below are some students in-progress, and our most recent graduates (with instructor Sam)!

Bike Distributions

• We continue to restore and distribute bikes to those in need. To prioritize limited volunteer time, we have dropped to just taking in requests from Puebloans who are actively homeless or unhoused. If you need a bike or want to help someone who does to get connected with us, please let us know and we’ll get you on the list – click here to request one. Below are some of the folks we’ve helped get on bikes within the past few weeks:

Donations

• In addition to monetary support for our limited but very real expenses, we can also always use restorable bikes and bike parts. A good donation candidate doesn’t need to be running/rideable or even have every single original piece, but it is tougher to restore bikes that are rusty, missing several components, or very old designs (older than mid 80’s). If you have extra bikes that could be put to good use with a new rider in need, please consider donating them to GCBB. Details here.

That’s all! Hope to see you out at Walter’s on the 1st!

-The GCBB Team