It’s summer time, and many of us can remember long summer vacations from school riding our bikes getting our first taste of freedom. For many children in Newburgh, summer vacations can be a boring time with not much to do, or anywhere to go. There is a new project called Bike Newburgh which is aiming at providing safe, efficient bicycles and services to people who need them for transportation, fun, and health as a way of building and celebrating our community.
So far they have held four bike repair sessions, to fix brakes, flat tires, minor repairs, and to teach others the skills needed to keep the bike functioning and riding safely. They shared many stories about kids, health, being a parent or grand-parent these days. It was an exciting place to be.
They are in need of the following:
-Used bikes. The City of Newburgh streets are hilly and bumpy, and are great for mountain bikes (with the “fatter” tires). Adult sized, kid sized, in-between sized. They clean them up, make sure they’re safe, and get them rolling.
-Bike parts. The best place to get parts is from bikes that look too damaged to ride-or missing chains or seats or wheels. If it’s not rusted solid, there’s almost always something usable!
-Help collecting donated used bikes or partial bikes.
-They are offering to show you how to patch an inner tube, adjust a seat, check brakes, and have you join the fun.
For more information on how you can help, contact John, 845-566-1557. Or e-mail at donate@BikeNewburgh.org.
Great program
I am so glad that someone took this on as it needed. When my husband and I first moved into our neighborhood he was doing something similiar to this. He only did this one summer as the need was so great he could not keep up with the demand. That year he was able to supply kids in our neighborhood with over 30 bikes. We would come home from work and they would be sitting on our steps.
Update on this project. Scroll down for article.
http://urbanfarmersleague.blogspot.com/2010/08/bike-newburgh.html