Green Chile Bike Bank collects donated bicycles, repairs them, and distributes them to community members in need. Our goal is to increase access to affordable transportation, reduce environmental impact, and foster community connections through bike programs.
Since our founding, we’ve provided hundreds of bikes to individuals who rely on them for commuting, school, and recreation—making mobility accessible and sustainable for everyone.
Our entirely volunteer-run organization collects donated bikes to provide mobility solutions for those in need, promoting access and sustainability in our communities.
We are proud to live and work in a community so filled with resources and resourceful people as Pueblo. We are a mixture of people born and raised here and those arrived more recently, but we are all glad to call it home. Our efforts to build up the community are part of that appreciation.
Join us in bike themed festivities as we fund-raise for our cause of rebuilding and repairing bikes for our most vulnerable community members. Meet at 6pm and depart at 6:30pm for a brief ride with our friends Cruisin’ Pueblo. Following our ride, which will grace the GCBB workshop on 8th and Greenwood, we have two sweet bikes to raffle this time around, and many other etc prizes as well. Enjoy our favorite local DJ, Escapism. Local bike art created with scraps directly from the workshop of Green Chile Bike Bank will be on display and available for donations. Get your face painted and enjoy some cotton candy and bike themed games with the chance to earn prizes! We look forward to seeing all our friends and family who have supported us all these years. We love and appreciate you all.
It’s been a busy summer for the Bike Bank. We’ve been turning out bikes but have no shortage of projects remaining to restore. Skilled volunteer mechanics are the biggest limiting factor in our work currently (and semi-skilled… heck, even unskilled, we’ll help you learn if you’re motivated and willing to show up semiregularly).
What does it look like?
We have skilled mechanics who can orient you to the shop, get you set up with projects at your skill level, and help you with tricky problems. We meet every Tuesday night from about 6-9pm at our workshop on Greenwood. During this time, we work on bike restoration and repairs for members of the Pueblo community in need.
Who is welcome?
Everyone! In general, you need the ability to be around others, to follow instructions in the safe use of hand tools, to be sober, and to be willing to help the community. If you have a little mechanical aptitude and especially bike-related skills, it helps, but we really can teach you if you are willing. Flexibility helps, as does patience for when things take longer than you think, but we are a supportive group that works to include everyone, both those who need and can offer help.
What’s in it for you?
We’re not all selfless – we enjoy the opportunity to be around others who want to give back to the community, and being able to use our skills to provide a service that can be out of reach otherwise for so many in Pueblo. But if you stick around for a couple months you get a t-shirt. And use of the shop for your own bike projects. And occasionally we have cocoa and microwave popcorn… the list goes on!
How do I get started?
Email us at greenchilebike@gmail.com to see about joining us on a shop night. It helps us if we know ahead of time that you’re planning to come by.
Know someone who might be interested, but who’s not on ‘the grid’ of websites and social media? Please tell them in person! Pueblo is a person-to-person kinda town, and we know that. Let somebody know we could use the help and you’re helping, too 🙂
-The GCBB Team
Here are a few of the Puebloans we’ve helped with bikes this summer:
This past week we heard back from the IRS – after almost two years of being a state-recognized nonprofit corporation, we are now also federally recognized as a public charity.
Our reasons for hanging onto the in-between status of being incorporated but not tax-exempt were due to limited volunteer time and energy – organizing a board and following up on tax reporting is just more work when you’re an exempt organization, and we weren’t in a position to chase the bigger grants that would’ve made it worthwhile. Having been simply incorporated with the state, we could have a bank account, sign a lease, and receive electronic donations as an organization; that suited us then. Now with recognition as an exempt organization under section 501(c)(3), we are eligible for many more partnerships, funding opportunities, and any donor who wishes may write off the value of their donations from their personal or business income taxes.
This opens quite a few new doors, and we are excited to start knocking! Rest assured, it doesn’t change the spirit with which we serve Pueblo – we are still here for the needs of those on the margins, no matter how organized we get.
GCBB Pueblo 