Shop hours for December are as follows:
Sundays – December 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30 – Noon to 4 PM
Tuesdays – December 4, 11, and 18 – 7 PM to 9 PM (closed December 25 for Christmas)
Thursdays – December 6, 13, 20, and 27 – 7 PM to 9 PM
Lots of great things are happening at the shop. On November 24 we held BLITZ! where we repaired bicycles for the Holiday Wishes program. This is an annual event and we have a great time. We finished a lot of bicycles, but there are still a number of them left to do. We are waiting on the program to give us the height/gender/bicycle preference information for the adult recipients. We plan to deliver bicycles the week before Christmas.
The bicycle count for 2012 now stands at 720! This is a new record, and the record grows with every bicycle that we give away. We gave 211 kid bicycles to Free Bikes 4 Kidz at their collection, plus another dozen to the Bike Ambassador program at Jefferson Elementary School in Minneapolis, along with a lot of people coming in to pick up bicycles. Our wait list is just about caught up, so the list remains open. If all the bicycles on the list get done, we will continue repairing bicycles to have ready for the spring rush. We also have done a good job of cleaning out old stuff and so we have space available for bicycle donations. This is a good thing, because we usually get a large batch of adult bikes from Free Bikes 4 Kidz, and we will be adding a 6th city to our recycling efforts. Also, Lino Lakes now is a monthly pickup, so we are growing.
If you have never had the opportunity to visit our store, we hope you will be able to do so. It is exciting to watch customers come in to pick up their bicycles, and always fun to snag a great deal on some odd-ball bike part that you wouldn’t find anywhere else. Even if you just come to hang out awhile, you are always welcome at Mr. Michael’s. Hope to see you soon at our store.