January shop schedule is as follows:
Sundays – January 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30 – Noon until 4 PM
Tuesdays – January 4, 11, 18, and 25 – 7 PM until 9 PM
Thursdays – January 6, 13, 20, and 27 – 7 PM until 9 PM
Bike Love weekend will be January 22 and 23. This is when our regular volunteers bring in their own bicycles for some much-needed TLC. Contact me directly for specific hours.
The bicycle count as of 12/30 is 530! The shop will be open on 12/30 from 7 PM to 9 PM, and hopefully we will get some pickups. I also have to verify bicycle counts from Tom, so we could actually be at 531 or 532. Anyway, our biggest year ever was 2008 when we gave away 531, so we want to break the record and we are oh so close. Watch this space for an update and final tally for 2010.
We will be doing the Twin Cities Bike Swap again this year. It is on Sunday, February 13 from 9 AM until 2 PM at the National Sports Center in Blaine. We will have lots of great stuff for sale at rock bottom prices – even cheaper than our normally low in-store prices. There will be bargains galore, so plan to come see us at the Swap.
It looks like we will be entering into a couple of new partnerships for 2011. One is with our friend LeRoy from Coon Rapids. They are forming a foundation to fix and give away bicycles to kids, and we will supply them with the bicycles. We also are planning to partner with operators of sober houses to provide bicycle fleets for residents to use. There is also a group in Minneapolis who may be doing a kid bike program and will send volunteers to our store to fix the bicycles that they will give away. Most likely this will be a blitz. We also plan to continue the partnership with Downtown Congregations to End Homelessness. There are lots of exciting opportunities opening to us for expansion.
We rely on our volunteers and our customers to help us continue our outreach. Mike could never fix so many bicycles all by himself, and without customers to buy our stuff, we couldn’t pay the rent and keep the doors open. Thanks to all of you who have helped us out or bought our stuff. We hope to see all of you early and often in 2011.