A Local Project
March 16th: At the beginning of the COVID pandemic, Marcy Furse, Coordinator of Volunteers at Lazarus House, reached out about some basic needs (paper towels, cleaning supplies, masks, food, diapers). We gathered some supplies and delivered them to their location (Donation information here).
During that process, we mentioned we still had a few bikes left over from our Holiday bike drive.
After some back and forth, Marcy noted that although it was a generous offer, they wouldn’t be able to give anyone bikes unless we had bikes for EVERYONE; which turned out to be 30 children.
Instead of shying away from a possible logistical challenge, we took it head on.
Overwhelming Donations
Without many expectations, the Mutt crew put a few notices on social media outlining a need for donations. The response was immediate and incredible.
In the meantime, we realized that if we wanted to outfit all the children with bikes, we needed to aquire AND FIT the bikes to the individual kids..
We worked closely with the Lazarus House crew to begin mapping out sizes, preferences, training wheels needed, etc.
As we worked on the logistical side of things, the bikes started piling up.
We had donations dropped off at the garage, next to our cars at work, and bikes left outside of people homes to be picked up. It was a very touching show of support and ultimately helped round out our final number of bikes donated to around 60.
Filling the gaps
Once we had enough of an inventory to start mapping the bikes to the kids, we were able to see:
- Needed repairs
- What we needed to purchase
This was when we started to see the next step of the challenge: the global bike shortage.
Local shops, Walmart, Target: they were all out of bikes.
We worked with our long-time partners, Cycles Etc. and Rhino Bike Works to secure some new and refurbished bikes and we finally managed to get 30 bikes built, refurbished, and ready for delivery.
Always the best part
Just two months after taking on the challenge, we delivered the bikes on a beautiful spring day in May. Marcy and Hazel and their Lazarus House crew met us at the project downtown and helped us organize and sanitize the bikes.
Because of COVID we met each family separately and handed the bikes over to the family.
It was incredible, to say the least, to see the faces on these young maniacs. Most of them had never owned a bike before and we hope that we genuinely made a difference in both the child’s and parent’s lives.
Thank you
Thank you to all for donating. Money, bikes, and time to the cause. We would never be able to do this without you.
As always, shout out to our incredible supporters:
– CYCLES ETC. SALEM for helping locate bikes, maintain bike safety, provide protective gear, and most importantly moral support…nice work dudes.
– RFX Inc. for believing in the mission and trusting in our team. Your donations are always leaned on heavily and we can’t say thank you enough.
– RIDETSG for just being so freaking generous and understanding the mission.
– BURTON CHILL PROGRAM (and specifically Alex) for never doubting and always supporting us morally and with product.
