The March shop schedule is as follows:
Sunday – March 4 – noon until 4 PM (closed March 11, 18, and 25)
Tuesdays – March 6 and 27 – 7 PM to 9 PM (closed March 13 and 20)
Thursdays – March 1, 8, and 29 – 7 PM to 9 PM (closed March 15 and 22)
Wednesday work nights are March 7 and 28 from 6 PM until 9 PM. If no one shows up by 8 PM, we go home. The store will be closed from March 11 through 25 for our vacation.
Due to our vacation and spring preparation, we will not be taking any bicycle requests during the month of March. We will reopen our list on Monday, April 2. This should give us time to clear all the current requests on the list and have some bicycles built in advance of the rush. We don’t want to get so far in the hole like last year, when we had around 90 requests by mid-May.
We have given away 79 bicycles so far in 2012. That is ahead of last year’s pace. We have such a great new group of volunteer mechanics that we have almost kept up with the requests. They are a huge blessing to us.
The shop made a small profit last year. We will be reinvesting the money in the business. We have just painted our bathroom, and will be installing our new exterior sign. We also have been very busy cleaning the shop and organizing the parts. We still have a way to go, but at least we no longer have boxes of unsorted stuff sitting all around my desk. A special thanks to Michelle and her volunteer group for pairing all the pedals and grips.
In April we will be part of a couple of exciting events! We will be a stop on the Great Re-Use Race, and also will have a booth and do a bicycle maintenance demonstration at the Coon Rapids Green Expo. Watch this space for details so you can participate.