Shop hours for August are:
Tuesdays – August 2, 9, 16, and 30 – 7 PM to 9 PM (closed August 23)
Thursdays – August 4, 11, 18, and 25 – 7 PM to 9 PM
Sundays – August 7, 14, 21, and 28 – Noon to 4 PM
On Saturday, August 13, we will clean out the big garage. Come around 10 AM, we will work until 3 or 4, or whenever we get tired, or whatever. Free beer for helpers, maybe even food.
On Saturday, August 20, we will have a Blitz to repair as many bicycles as we can in one afternoon. We will start the fun at Noon and go until 5 or 6 PM. Free food and beer for volunteers. Come anyway, even if you are not a mechanic, because we will have bicycles to tear down and parts to sort. We always have a good time at these events, so join us.
The bicycle give-away count is up to 189 so far this year. We are currently in the black financially, and our wait list is still around 100 people. We always need mechanics any time that the shop is open. We also have reopened our list, because we felt that God was leading us to. We really didn’t want to close the list, but we thought we needed to in order to get caught up. However, that was us doing the planning rather than allowing the Almighty to have His way, so we are trusting that He will send us more mechanics so we can get the list caught up. At our current level of help, the people who are getting on the list now won’t receive bicycles until sometime in November. The more help we have, the shorter the wait. Please consider helping us repair bicycles to give away.
We have three more classes scheduled for this year for Downtown Congregations to End Homelessness. We can have up to 6 people in a class, but typically only 3 show up. The bicycle supply for this program is adequate, but they (as well as us) always need more bicycles to fit tall men. If you have any tall men’s bicycles to spare, please consider bringing them to us as we have lots of big guys who need them.
Our vacation was great. We went to Indiana so I could compete in the National Speed Skating Championships and also had the chance to visit our son and his family. We got to go to church with the family, and I won 6 silver medals! We also stopped on the way back to visit with Mike’s father and to buy his pickup truck to replace my car that doesn’t want to run anymore.
That’s it for now. If you have never been to the shop, please stop by and say hello.