Police officers volunteering at the bike shop

Written by Andrej

A couple of weeks ago I got pulled over riding my tricycle down Jonesboro Rd. with my 3-year-old son in the back seat (a.k.a tool basket), on my way home from the bike shop.

The police officer approached me asking if I was the guy running the bike shop. Not the first thing I expected to hear from him.

He told me about a group of six or seven boys he frequently sees in Lakewood Heights (a neighborhood that borders ours) always working on their bicycles but unable to complete the repairs due to lack of tools and parts. He asked me if I would be willing to help them out if he brought them to the bike shop. I told him I’d love to but I’d first need to look for a volunteer or two to help manage six boys. He offered to volunteer and we scheduled the event.

The following week three police officers barged into the bike shop during the Wednesday shift to make sure I was still planning on the event. All three committed to be there and volunteer.

The afternoon of the event a police van full of kids and their broken bicycles pulled up behind the bike shop, followed by five police cruisers. It was quite the sight but each police officer paired up with a kid and Evan (a student mechanic you will soon hear more about) and I just bounced around from team to team offering direction and pointing them to where the right tool/part might be.

At the end of the event a couple from our neighborhood showed up with pizza and soft drinks for everybody. They wanted to show their appreciation for the police officers for their willingness to get their hands dirty helping these kids get their bikes fixed.

Results:

• the teams fixed five out of seven bicycles and the owners of the two unfixable ones are going to be back to earn bicycles from our bike shop
• the youth had a positive experience with the police which is huge for neighborhoods such as ours with typically a very low level of trust towards the police
• neighbors saw a large number of officers involved in a POSITIVE event. I am told by elderly in our community that this was a first.
• Evan, my assistant mechanic experienced his first event on the other side (as staff) and we had a very insightful debrief discussing the challenges these young boys and girls face and how we cannot be satisfied by just being an after-school program. We are about changing these kids’ lives – by vocational training, increased employability, and youth leadership development.
• We need to restock inner tubes, tires, chains, bottom brackets, pedals and wheels

If you want to help the South Atlanta Bike Shop run this and other programs please check out our list of needs.