Our December shop schedule is as follows:
Sundays – December 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29 – Noon to 4 PM
Tuesdays – December 3, 10, and 17 – 7 PM to 9 PM (closed December 24 and 31 so we can enjoy Christmas and New Year’s Eve with family)
Thursdays – December 5, 12, 19, and 26 – 7 PM to 9 PM
Wow! The shop has been busy with filling bicycle requests. This year we have had over 60 requests for Holiday Wishes bicycles. We are already over halfway done with the repairs, but still have a lot of work ahead of us to get all of them done and in the hands of the recipients. Our BLITZ! day was incredible – we finished 15 of the Holiday Wishes bicycles in the 6 hour event. Then our Small Business Sunday promotion brought in some good sales, which were much needed after a very slow November. In fact, this past November was our lowest month for sales income in two years. Good thing we had some good months earlier in the year to offset the shortfall.
We have not yet turned on the Christmas music in the shop. We tend to wait until sometime around 10 days before Christmas. We don’t want to get sick of it before enjoying our own Christmas festivities.
In other news, we hauled back a huge number of adult bikes that were not needed at Free Bikes 4 Kidz. Our garages are pretty full. We will be restocking our sale garage soon with some decent bikes, and we have quite a few road bikes that we plan to fix for sale. Nothing is what would be considered high-end, but there are some solid Fujis, Schwinns, and Raleighs in the bunch.
As our year draws to a close, I want to again thank our amazing volunteers. They have stuck with us through thick and thin. They put in lots of hours not just fixing bikes, but also helped us to remodel the shop. They show up regularly and keep the place cheerful. They do pick on each other, but that’s part of what makes MMRB fun. A special shout-out to Kendra, William, Marie, Tom R, Tom Y, Tom L, Carl, Zach, and Anne. No one could ask for a better group of volunteers than these folks. For all of you who have never been to our shop, make 2014 the year you do so, and meet some of these great people. We will be waiting.