Sunday afternoon we took 5 kids on a ride around Stone Mountain, Georgia. It’s always an adventure – to load up all the bikes, helmets and snacks, and kids with permission slips properly filled out and head out of the neighborhood.

The steep inclines certainly “kicked their butts” we all had a good time, even made time for some races. The trip culminated with hot dogs and chips (and home made brownies!) at one of our volunteers’ house.

The next trip has not been scheduled yet but we try to do at least one a month so stay tuned!

To kick off the season we organized a ~20 mile ride on the Silver Comet Trail. The bike shop kids rode alongside volunteers and donors. We rode together as friends and shared a snack at the half-way mark. If you weren’t there, well, you missed it!

We were asked by Kilpatrick Townsend if we would be willing to assist with their team building exercise that would consist of teams of two assembling brand new bicycles. In turn, this law firm would donate these bicycles (24 of them!) to us.

Everybody did great and had a good time!

We invited another non-profit youth-focused bike shop (Beltline Bikeshop) to join us for this event. Together we provided tools and expertise necessary and split the “loot” 50/50.

THANK YOU KILPATFICK TOWNSEND!!!

On March 17th we are taking a number of bike shop kids on bike ride on the Silver Comet trail. These trips are always adventurous and fun and the kids usually smile the entire time. We’re hoping for good weather and good turn-out as it is still early in the bike riding season.

We need your help!

Officer Turner has been volunteering with us for almost a year, building the unlikely trust between inner city youth and the police, mentoring youth from our neighborhood. To allow her to invest more of her time with the kids she has been pursuing a partnership between the Police Athletic League (PAL) and the South Atlanta Bike Shop for a while. Last week she achieved an important milestone by getting the long awaited transfer to PAL.

She immediately submitted a proposal to the PAL board asking them to allow her to run a portion of her PAL responsibilities (youth development) out of the South Atlanta Bike Shop two days a week and by doing so continue (and expand) the relationships and trust she’s built over the last year.

We stand behind her wholeheartedly and kindly ask that you express your support by posting a comment below. The PAL board will be making a decision in their meeting tomorrow: Tuesday 2/14.

a.k.a Christmas Party, South Atlanta Bike Shop style

We have been battling illegal dumping of old tires in our neighborhood for a while by reporting offenders (when we catch them) and by regular neighborhood cleanup events. Recently we discovered a pile of tires dumped behind the bike shop so we decided to turn lemons into lemonade and make a race track for the kids.

We made invitations and sent them to all kids that have ever worked at the bike shop to come to the Christmas party. Despite bad weather almost 30 kids showed up ready to have fun.

We prepared a time trial race for the kids behind the bike shop with a really nice bike as the first prize. With the nearly invisible stump it turned out to be a little bit of an obstacle course too.

Keyuntay had the fastest time and is now the proud owner of a sweet Raleigh mountain bike.

After the race we went inside the bike shop to enjoy some pizza and talk about what we were going to do next year.

We are tremendously grateful for friends that helped us cover:

• A bike shop shirt for everyone
• Cost of invitations/postage
• pizza and drinks
• tape for the race track
• a first aid kit.

We are also thankful for all our volunteers and police officers that helped us out.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I wanted to thank you for your prayers and support. Without you we would not be able to sustain our development work in South Atlanta. There would be no bike shop and the 65+ kids (since we opened the bike shop) would not get to earn bikes or experience an environment where they are seen as valuable and capable of changing the world.

Recently I got to share the story of the bike shop at a Christmas party of a local company that significantly helps financially sustain the bike shop. As I was selecting photos for the presentation I was reminded of all the ways God has provided and grown this ministry.

When the bike shop started we didn’t have space so I held the bike shop outside.

And we didn’t have tools other than what I brought from home

Thanks to generosity of two friends we now have a 700+ sq. ft space with six work stations and a store front!

Cycle of Love is a yearly bicycle ride from Birmingham, AL to Atlanta, GA (~165 miles) to draw attention to the struggles of brothers and sisters that live with daily injustice. Every year we take part in this event to raise awareness about (and funds for) our fight for the future of the youth of South Atlanta.

We didn’t join just to raise funds for our youth development program. We formed a team including five of our bike shop kids to represent the South Atlanta Bike Shop. Yes, that made things exponentially more difficult than just riding 165 miles ourselves. But we can’t claim to be serious about youth development and not include these young leaders in an event like this even if we have to confront the status quo of how fundraising is supposed to be done.

Some of our team ended up riding only one section of the trip, some rode all but one section. Of the teens, one was able to complete the entire trip with us. All of us were changed by this experience.

As of this morning we raised $700 (Thank You!) but that’s not the final number yet as we are still waiting for some of the pledged donations to arrive. You know who you are!

Last year Evan and I joined Cycle of Love to ride from Birmingham, AL to Atlanta, GA (160+ miles) to raise funds for the bike shop.

For Cycle of Love 2011 (Nov 5-6) our bike shop team has five teens plus two volunteers and me embarking on this life-changing journey. We are asking for donations for our youth development program at $1/mile (or more if you’d like). You can sponsor as many miles as you would like!

Our first pledge came from GA state representative Margaret Kaiser for $1/mile for the entire trip. Please join Mrs. Kaiser in supporting the at-risk youth of South Atlanta by supporting the work we do!

Last Saturday we took a group of bike shop kids to the Silver Comet Trail. Yes, we could have taken a ride around the neighborhood (which we do every now and then) or to the Turner field and back but we can do that any day. We wanted give them an experience outside of the neighborhood, on a real bicycle trail where real cyclist ride.

So after we prepared all the bikes (that the kids have earned over the last few months) and found helmets for everyone (courtesy of City of Atlanta Police Department’s COPS program) we loaded the bikes onto Andrej’s truck, loaded the kids into the church van and set out for Smyrna, GA – an approx. 20 mile drive.

All of them did wonderful. At 12 miles this was the longest bike ride of their life (so far). They raced us, raced each other, and in their own way practiced their trail etiquette with “passing on your left” and if that wasn’t enough also, “on your right!”

At the end of the trip we were surprised by a couple from our neighborhood that invited all of us to Chic-fil-A which was incredible! The kids were super excited. What generosity!

After we returned to the neighborhood there was a lot of bragging and the story grew bigger and bigger every time it was told. Then they continued riding around the block with some more “on your left” and “on your right.”

Needless to say we will be doing more of these trips and will need more volunteers.