Middle Way
Rescues Old Bikes And Puts Them Back On The Street
by Dawn Pillsbury, Sonoma West Staff Writer,
1/07/2004
SEBASTOPOL - With customers from Sebastopol
to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, a new Middle Way project is putting
people on bikes and training its developmentally-challenged workers to
refurbish old bikes.
"A lot of our clients have great
mechanical inclinations," explained Middle Way Executive Director
Jeff Edelheit. "We wanted to find something easy yet beneficial and
that could be built on."
Community Bikes, a collaboration between the
Middle Way, Car-Lite, local bike shops and other community
groups, rescues old bikes, restores them and gets them back into
circulation in the community.
"I see this shop as a catalyst for the
community to be more bike-friendly," said Manuel Mejia, a Middle Way
trainer and supervisor of the bike shop.
The Middle Way is a Sebastopol-based
nonprofit that helps developmentally challenged people develop job and
other life skills.
The main focus of the program, explained
Kathryn Ackland, director of Middle Way client services, is to train the
developmentally challenged people who are Middle Way clients in a skilled
trade.
"There are lots of jobs in janitorial,
landscaping and heavy labor, but not skilled trade," said Ackland.
"This will give our clients the opportunity to get jobs in bike shops
out in the real world."
Middle Way client Arnold Anderson of Santa
Rosa said he is looking forward to working in a bike shop someday.
"I'm still getting used to the tools and
equipment," he said. "But if I have questions, I can always ask
Manuel. I like working with bikes."
Michael Teller, a Sebastopol resident and
former bike shop worker who has volunteered with Community Bikes since its
inception last summer, said bikes are great for the community.
"Ecologically, economically, socially,
bicycles contribute to society," he said. "The more we have
people riding bicycles and learning about them, the more opportunities we
open for people to have a connection with bicycles."
One fund-raiser the project did last summer
raised $5,000.
"We sold 50 bikes at Burning Man,"
said Ackland. Because bicycles are the best way to get around the Black
Rock Desert during the Burning Man Festival, held in the Nevada desert
every August, there was a lot of interest from people who fly in to attend
the festival.
"And almost all of them were donated
back to us," she said. She plans to repeat the fund-raiser at the
2004 festival.
The Community Bikes shop, located in the
Middle Way building on Morris Street, is dedicated to the memory of George
Frank, who owned Analy Bike before he died on Aug. 29, 2003.
"His widow, Norma, has been very
generous with us," said Mejia. She donated many of the tools the
Middle Way clients have used to refurbish almost 200 bikes so far.
The Sebastopol Lions Club installed lights in
the shop, Fine Edge Cabinets built the stands, boxes and benches and RITES
Project (Return Intentions to Ecological Sustainability) members painted a
mural across one wall of the shop.
Mejia said one of his favorite aspects of the
project is working with the volunteer bike workers.
"We hold volunteer nights a couple times
a month," he said. "We had a big rush to get the bikes done for
Burning Man and these people came out to help. It's great because the
clients get to work with these people they'll hopefully be getting jobs
with in the future."
The refurbished bicycles are available for a
$100 donation to Middle Way. They still need donations of old bicycles and
money for the project and are looking for sponsors.
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