The HOLIDAY PARTY
Celebrate the Holiday season with your friends at the CBSO.
We'll
have a potluck dinner and enjoy fruit smoothies on the new BIKE BLENDER
!!
12/22
Holiday Party 12/24
Project Homeless - Civic Auditorium Shop Closed
for Holiday Vacation - Reopens 1/6/2010 1/26
Volunteer Meeting 2/23 Wheel
Building Workshop Reminder -
No Ladies Nite until 3/2/2010
Reminder - No January Newsletter
The
CBSO
Holiday Party 2009 12/22/2009
6-8PM Tuesday
Celebrate
the Holiday season with your friends at the CBSO Holiday Party.
We'll have a potluck dinner and enjoy fruit smoothies on the
new BIKE
BLENDER !!
Please let us know you'll be attending <click
here>
Thank you
to everyone who provided support for The Community Bicycle Project -
Holiday Gifts 2009. Through the help of volunteers, we were able to
provide bikes and helmets to The Child Savings Institute, Heartland
Family Services,
Omaha's Project Homeless, and Camp Fire Girls and Boys. Prior to
delivering the bikes, helpers cleaned and polished bikes, worked on
bicycle repairs and refurbishing, tied bows, and provided financial
support. Congratulations! You have helped to make a lot of dreams come
true for some youngsters.
"Thank
you. The bike is beautiful – you made one boy very happy this
Xmas! " Sara Achelpohl, Child Saving
Institute
Part
of the CBSO mission is building community. What better way to
exemplify this mission than for us to help with the annual Project
Homeless Kids Connect at the Civic Auditorium? We put a call
out
the generosity of the bicycle community to help us on Christmas Eve Day
as we pitch in to bring the joy of cycling to families that are
struggling.
CBSO will be donating functional, refurbished bicycles and new helmets
to this event. Plus, we will have a table for kids to make artwork from
discarded bike parts like spokes, cables, housings, ball bearing and
bolts. They can keep their art or give it to a loved one.
Consider making this brief event part of your family's tradition by
making time to come down to help us. Santa's elves are busy
that
day, we could really use your help!. If you plan to attend,
please let us know <click
here>
Click Below
to donate
$5 to help CBSO with the purchase of new helmets for Holiday
Gifts
2009 and Project Homeless.
Nine
AmeriCorps volunteers from around the US were recently in town helping
Habitat for Humanity and assisting senior citizens to enroll in
Medicare. While here, they took time to help out at the CBSO, assisting
with bicycle refurbishments and with shop winterization and basement
reorganization.
We had seventeen (17!) new and seasoned volunteers attend our November Skills SpinUp. Business items included our window sill replacement project and bicycle storage system for the basement. We also discussed use of our new bill of sale and Aaron Haug agreed to take on bicycle sales for the shop (BIG thanks Aaron!). We reviewed bicycles being repaired for the Community Bike Project - Holiday 2009.
Themeeting
featured Gary Gebhard, who gave a
mechanic's lesson on chains and cables. Attendees were
privileged to learn tons of great information on
installing new chains and sizing them correctly. Not just going by the
length of the chain you took off, but getting it sized to the right
length. Gary also demonstrated how to identify the correct
cables and cable housings to use and installing them correctly. He
demonstrated how to use a soldering iron to finish off the sharp ends
of cut cable (as opposed to lead crimp-ons that tend to fall off).
Thanks to
the support of our sponsors and though bicycle and t-shirt sales the
CBSO's educational training mini-workshops are offered at no cost. The
goal is to teach our citizens how to self-maintain a safe bicycle.
Your
security settings may block this video, if there is a problem -- click here
Sheena
Cheng and Ariel Earth,
students in a Creighton University Public Relations class, created a
great video of what exists behind the brick walls at the CBSO shop.
Enjoy !
The Blenderizer - Life in the
fast lane is a Smoothie
or
more affectionately known as the Smoothinator 7000
(The
following provided to CBSO by Julie Harris at Activate Omaha.)
My
bike blender obsession began in Portland last August at the National
Safe Routes to School Conference after attending a session on how to
get more kids into cycling. Given that the cost of
commercially
made bike blender is around $250, and my budget at Activate Omaha was
about $249 less than that, I was thrilled when I found the online plans
for "how to build your own bike blender."
After
many a Wednesday night throughout the fall, and thanks to the awesome
generosity of the CBSO for the bike (vintage, folding tandem!), the
space, the tools, and the brainpower, we will be taking The
"Smoothinator 7000" out to schools that participate in our Walk 'n Roll
to School programs. Pedal-powered smoothies will be created by kids as
they get the message that it is fun and healthy to walk and ride to
school at school programs, health fairs,
bike rodeos and other events. We will also be able to use the
blender to demonstrate actual scientific principles!
The
beauty of the Smoothinator is that with the exception of a few pieces
of hardware, the entire project was created with recycled parts; the
blender itself was acquired through a Craig's List barter (one blender
for one bag of Activate Omaha swag)!
Any
talk of the Smoothinator would not be complete without highlighting the
passion, sense of humor and dedication of my new buddy Duane Miller,
whom I now refer to as the "Chief Mad Scientist." :) Not only
did
he take one look at the plans I provided and then come up with a better
way to do the project, but he put up with me and my complete lack of
math/science aptitude (which is why I am known as the "Chief Social
Scientist!") Plenty of thanks are also due to the "Assistant
Mad
Scientists," including Ananath, Andrew, Stuart, Bob C., Alex, Ted and
Shane from the CBSO and Scott Redd from Bike Omaha.
The
project is mostly complete, and has been field tested already at
Saddlebrook Elementary, where we took it for the initial trial at the
Walk and Roll Wednesday awards assembly. Two of the school's
most
dedicated cyclists
were called up to demonstrate, (see
photo below)
and the whole school cheered them on as they blended the strawberry
banana smoothie! To say that it was a huge hit is an
understatement.
Our
organization has changed much as we enter our fourth season at CBSO.
One thing that has not changed is our belief in the bicycle as a
magical tool for mentoring youth. In 2010 we plan to focus on adding
structure to our flagship Earn A Bike program. This will include
regular classes that will give our graduates not only a refurbished
bicycle and helmet, but mechanics skills, safety education, and a
spirit for community service. We also look forward to exploring ways to
share our volunteer power with the larger community in the form of the
Community Bicycle Project. These two projects will leverage our assets
to produce the maximum return on social capital. We have high
expectations going in to 2010 and that is exactly how we have grown
each year to now!
Stuart
Shell, Chair
Our
safety class with Camp Fire kids in November (see last month's
newsletter) created an opportunity to further explore ways of
collaborating with the local non-profits. Our education committee has
been brainstorming ideas on how to bring our safety curriculum to
youths involved in the after-school programs of Camp Fire, specifically
at Liberty Elementary. Stay tuned for developments as the year
progresses, and be sure to get in touch if you would like to help
develop and deliver this curriculum.
Please
welcome Aaron Haug, the new CBSO Manager of Bicycle Sales. A
volunteer position, Aaron is the key individual responsible for the
sale of bicycles that have been identified as having some
miles
remaining and not yet ready for the bicycle pasture. If you
need
an inexpensive bicycle for transportation or recreation, contact Aaron.
Shortly, we will have regular hours when bicycle sales are
available, but be sure to make an appointment with Aaron. We
won't be handling bicycle sales during our regular Open Shop hours.
Aaron can be contacted at this link: <click
here>
Always
well dressed, here is Aaron in his finest Euro Team cycling jersey
(yeah it's crazy, it does kinda look like a tux)
mapping our
his next single-speed route.
Send an
email to omahabike@gmail.com,
go to the website and fill out the volunteer application, or stop
and fill out one at the shop. Come to the monthly volunteer
night. If you don't want to work on bikes, there are a lot of
other opportunities for you to participate in the mission
of the shop. Take a minute now and look through the following
open volunteer positions -- pick one you could help with:
Needed:
Volunteer for Bicycle Safety Education
Classes
will designed around the
League of American Bicyclists curriculum and include on-road training.
If you are interested in serving as an instructor we'd love to
meet you! We're looking for an individual who is willing to offer
monthly, a 2 hour class on a repeating basis. <click
here>
Needed:
Volunteer for Shop Supplies Coordination
CBSO
uses a lot of tubes, patch kits, lubes, tools (they wear out
unfortunately), cables, cable housings, .... and more -- phew
!!
the list is lengthy. We are looking for an organized
individual
to help with maintaining an inventory, checking on supplies on a
periodic basis, ordering the right stuff online from our
wholesale
account, and then following up that it came in. The time
commitment would be one to two hours per month. <click
here>
Needed:
Volunteer for Ebay & PayPal T-shirt sales
To help
expand our T-shirt sales, CBSO is looking for a volunteer to manage the
sale of the CBSO T-shirt on Ebay and Paypal. This task would involve
posting the
ad, printing out a mailing label using the Ebay shipping tool, slipping
the shirt into an envelope and setting the package out for the postman.
We would expect the time commitment to be one to two hours
per month.<click
here>
If
you have a bike for sale, we would be happy to insert your Classified
ad in the Newsletter, at no
cost. Send your completed copy using the
following link
and
we'll get it in the next CBSO Newsletter -- for
free! omahabike@gmail.com
You can
also make a small flier and post it on the bulletin board in the shop
Winter is
here, and it's the perfect time to tackle those bike tune-ups. Experienced
volunteers are on hand to help you through tasks that you might not have
attempted before. We need volunteers to help coordinate shop traffic,
assist with bike mechanics, and get involved in a variety ofspecial
projects we have going on. There's plenty to help with - so stop in.
If you
can't make it to the shop to pick up a T-Shirt, we will ship you
one-- shipping is only $1 extra. This could be one more item you can
check off your Holiday shopping. Select the size you need and
click on the
Shopping Cart icon below to
buy one now !
The popular
"Earn-A-Bike" program is available to anyone interested in volunteering
time working at the CBSO. After an individual completes 9 hours of
logged volunteer time, he/she may pick out a bike from the
inventory. If you're not familiar with our
Earn-A-Bike program, get the details at our website, and stop by the
shop to pick up an application form.
Bicycles - available for
purchase
The
bicycles pictured below are remaining from the auction and available
for purchase. Funds raised from the sale of bicycles are used to cover
operational expenses of the CBSO shop, and permit us to keep the doors
open year-round. If you are interested in a particular
bicycle,
contact Aaron Haug -- the
CBSO Manager of Bicycle Sales by <clicking
here>, to
arrange viewing.
Click
on the images for a larger view.
Womens
Schwinn Suburban
5-Speed
Price: $50
Mens
Raleigh Record single-speed conversion.
Price: $60
Consider
becoming a "Friend of
CBSO"
and help support the mission of the all-volunteer CBSO shop. Donations
can be made using the PayPal link at the bottom of this newsletter.
Community Bicycle Shop Omaha is an IRS recognized 501(c)(3)
organization.
PayPal
Donations
can be made to omahabike@gmail.com
