Oh my goodness, this is about 5 months over due, but we finally opened the doors to Lucky Seven this last week! So far we have had 11 kids begin to fix up their bikes, and we have a waiting list of 23! We need more volunteers to help, because apparently this was a really good idea, the kids love it and we are overwhelmed! Oh and by the way, i made sure to advertise first and the most at my school, so that all my favorite kiddos could have first dibbs on the bikes. (I know, I am biased... but really... can you blame me?) There are some pretty sweet bikes too. Three kids ended up with golden mongooses. (Mongooses I hear are all the rage with youth)
I've been having fun with stencils lately, I wish i had more time to really learn how to spray paint. 
Here we all are watching Dan... (the Bike mechanic helping a kids with his bike)
Here is one of my dears working on his golden mongoose.(for anybody who doesn't know) We got lots of old bikes donated, most of them had been stolen and then turned into the police (the S-town PD has been amazing with all their help, I must say they have blown stereo types out of the water.. well, many of the coppers have) we also got a bunch of bikes from Seattle! Then we found a Church... Grace Brethren denomination, that was willing to give us a space to work in rent free! Now kids ages 8-18 are invited to come pick out an old bike... we teach them how to tear it apart and put it back together... maintain it... ride it safely and all that jazz, and they take it home as their own! This is soooo exciting and has been a dream of mine for years. Anyway, I have been so impressed with all the people trying to do good in this community. i am very impressed by the local churches and their community out reach. i see no end of lovely people who sacrifice and work really hard to help others. Then i get frustrated when people at my church or on the news or just who ever, talk about this world as a bad place full of evil... it can't be that bad yet, not with so many people like this. Anyway... coincidentally quite a few people from our the mormon church have been involved as well, the main bike guy (who is awesome) the missionaries... they are so cute working in their white shirts and a whole family of boys and their Dad.
Anyway, well see how it goes from here, hopefully we can recruit some help soon.
You are totally awesome Julie! If I ever move home I want to work in your shop, but you'll have to teach me to fix bikes first. I had to have a guy in my ward get up at 5:30 this morning to help me swap out the pedals on my bike because I couldn't figure it out. I did a duathlon and didn't want to change shoes twice so I used regular pedals.
ReplyDeleteThat is such an amazing idea, Julie! What a fabulous way to really make a difference around you!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I want to pay you to fix my bike! (o:
Cool Julie!!! you're amazing. I'm definitely the lesser of us. you do so much. you're right, there's still a lot of good people in the world. we just need to remember that.
ReplyDeleteCongrats! Another dream made reality. You will change the world one bike at a time.
ReplyDeleteYou do the most wonderful things, and keep thinking of more all the time. You are definately my most favorite and most inspiring Julie!
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