This is a public apology to a guy we angered. His anger is not without merit.

Through no ill-will or bad intent, he became the target of jokes at P2P — simply because he got a good deal on a used bike part at the P2P garage. That’s the extent of his action here. Through shop talk and working on bikes and fussing and bs’ing, the deal he got became blown into a unkind and unfair attack on him, a guy we barely know.

I (John) am ultimately to blame for this.

Tonight, the episode culminated into a confrontation that I perpetuated.

That sucks. And I’m sorry.

But I also am indebted to this guy for calling me and P2P out on this. He called me an elitist.

As is often the case when your called out, and called out honestly, you are defensive. It took me the ride home to realize that his charge certainly has an element of truth. Actually it took me a couple blocks to see that, and the rest of the ride to think about what to do.

I’m not 100% sure what to do with this information yet. But I do know, after listening to him tonight that he loves bikes. And if our goal is to get as many folks on bikes as we can, then alienating the people that already love bikes will not get us very far with our goal.

We can not have an attitude or perception of exclusion. We must fix this.

Contact: Liza Mattana, Pedals 2 People board president; pedals2people@gmail.com; (509-456-4681)

Event Date: Sat March 22^nd; 10am-3pm

Place: Ron’s Drive In, 12502 E. Sprague, Spokane Valley

Pedals 2 People (P2P) will be accepting adult bike donations at Ron’s Drive In in the Spokane Valley on Saturday March 22^nd, from 10am-3pm.

Pedals 2 People is accepting adult bikes in repairable condition for our spring and summer programs.

Important: At this time, we are not accepting children’s bike donations.

Donated bikes will go to one of the following programs:

• Village Bike Project: P2P has partnered with the Village Bike Project to ship over 400 surplus bikes from the Spokane region to Ghana, Africa. Our goal is to ship in September.
• Commuter bikes: some bikes are refurbished by P2P volunteers and sold at reduced/subsidized rates to folks that cannot otherwise afford high-quality commuter bikes.
• Fundraising: some bikes are sold to fund other P2P projects, such as free neighborhood tune-ups and other out-reach events.

Bike Donations are also accepted at the P2P garage every Monday/Wednesday night from 6-8 pm. For directions to the P2P garage contact us at pedals2people@gmail.com, or you can call us at 509-842-6597.

Next Drop-off Event: West Central Community Center, April 26^th.

About Village Bike Project: Village Bicycle Project came about in response to a critical lack of basic reliable, affordable transport for millions of Africans. When the only other choice is walking, bicycles are a tool of development,improving access to farms,market, jobs, schools, and health care.

The project started in Ghana in 1999, when David Peckham (Director)) went there to study ways to make bicycles more accessible. He found several ways to make a real difference and the Village Bicycle Project was born.

More information about Village Bike Project can be found at http://www.pcei.org/vbp/

About Pedals to People: Our mission is to use the bicycle as a tool to empower people and build healthier communities. We believe that the bicycle is an approachable, healthy and sustainable option for transportation, and most importantly, it provides a purely enjoyable activity that can strengthen bonds between people. Pedals 2 People also works to connect with other organizations in order to further extend its ability to recycle, reuse and rehabilitate bicycles back into local communities as well as communities abroad.

Contact us at pedals2people@gmail.com for more information. Or you can call us at 509-842-6597.

Further information about Pedals 2 People can be found at http://www.pedals2people.org

A quick run down of what’s cooking:

• We’re doing a bike donation drop off for the valley at Ron’s Drive in on Sprague. If you have an adult bike to donate and you live in the valley and you don’t want to make the long haul up to the south hill, then stop by Ron’s Drive In (12502 E. Sprague) on Sat, March 22nd from 10-3. Please bring adult bikes that are repairable. We can’t take kid’s bikes at the moment.

• Our first Free Bike Tune Up is going to be April 26th at the West Central Community Center. The tune up event is part of a broader bike rodeo being run by Bob Lutz (the BAB one, not the GM knucklehead), which in turn, is part of a broader event that apparenlty happens once a year at AM Cannon Park. More info on that is forthcoming.

• Garage is open Mon/Weds nights for bike donation drop offs, some limited DIY fixing, and building of beaters. Contact us at pedals2people@gmail.com for info on where the garage is and how to get involved.

• We have a phone! And a phone a number: 509-842-6597. Call and leave a message.

• We’ve got a reworked website on the way. Cool.

We’ve got some stuff in the works; we’re looking at bike tune up events in Hillyard and East Central this summer — we want to tie them to other events that are happening in those neighborhoods. More on that soon. Bike to Work week is coming; we’ll be doing bike triage/minor repairs for that. We’re working on a food fundraiser with Apple Charlotte Cooking Co for June 22nd. Stay tuned for more on that. Our calendar is up to date.

This bike was locked up a couple doors down from 2 Wheel Transit.

If this is your bike, we want you to ride with us in this year’s Pride Parade. Or let us borrow your bike.

If this isn’t your bike, but you like the idea of dressing up and dressing up your bike and then riding it with a bunch of other dressed up people then perhaps you should plan on riding with us in the Pride Parade. The point of the Pride Parade is to celebrate and recognize the fact that our community, like all communities, includes gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered people. As a class, this community has traditionally been pushed out of mainstream culture, and at worse, it has been the target of violence. The Pride Parade is a place to stand up publicly against the shame of the past, recognize the contributions of all people in our community today, and embrace the potential of the future,where all folks — regardless of sexual orientation — are treated with respect and fairness in all the workings of our society.

We had about 25 riders last year. We’d like to see at least 50 this year. Dare we shoot for 75?

The parade is in June. No date has been published for this year,but last year it was the first Saturday in June. Watch the OutSpokane site for more details and start looking now for finery to hang off your bike.

Ayamye is the documentary about the Village Bike Project:

In Ghana, West Africa, a rural village eagerly awaits a shipment of recycled bicycles from the United States. Inspiring, determined, resourceful, individuals let us into their daily lives in a dramatic look at how lack of transportation can impact the education, health and livelihood of the community.

This is a great film and shows the incredible impact bicycles have on families and local economies of rural Africa. Well worth loading up and carpooling over to CdA to view.

When: Thursday Jan 17th; 7 PM

Where: NIC Meyer Health and Science Bldg, Room #106.

Sponsored by Doma; NIC; Vertical Earth; and Palouse Clearwater Environmental Institute.

We’ve got a great space up on the south hill. It’s great because it’s free and secure and big enough. But it’s just so far away from the center of town that it makes it hard to get to by bike. We really want a DIY shop in a more central location. I love this building downtown:

It’s in the alley between Lincoln and Monroe and 1st and 2nd. One of those old garages would be ideal. The place looks empty. But judging by the shape the building is in, it’s likely condemned and would require a bunch of improvements… but maybe not?

The idea with a DIY shop would be to have a small shop where folks could come in and rent a space to fix their bike. Rental would be by the hour and would allow you to put your bike up in a stand and use the tools. You do the work.

A space more centrally located would also make it easier for people to get to our bike maintenance classes and provide a better place for bike donation drop offs.

A comment on comments

We had to turn the comments off because the spam was getting overwhelming. This is free software. I think with an upgrade we can get some “prove your not a robot” functionality which would all but eliminate spam comments. Or we could go to blogspot. You can contact us by hitting the contact link on the right or by emailing us at pedals2people@gmail.com.

Check it out.

Item #1 — Just a reminder: P2P Garage is only open Weds nights (6-8 pm) until March. Our first Weds of the year will be Jan 9th.

We are still taking bike donations. Info on bike donations here.

Calendar is here.

Item #2 — We are in the midst of planning the Spring/Summer Free Bike Tune Up events. We’ll be doing 4 events + the Spokane Bike To Work bike inspections/triage.

The four neighborhoods on the short list for bike tune up events are:

– East Central (Jacob’s Well)

– Perry District (The Shop)

– Hillyard (North East Community Center)

– Logan (TBD)

These are fun events for P2P volunteers. We load up the tools and parts, get our little mobile shop set up and get bikes going. Not sure on dates yet, we’ll be figuring that out.

Some stuff

• Garage night schedule This Weds (tomorrow, Dec 19th) will be the last garage night of the year. We’ll be starting up again in Jan on Weds nights only. In March, our goal is 3 nights a week.

• The Scoop Photo Show The photos look great. All up, we got about 60 submissions; so far we’ve sold a handful. If you are kicking yourself for not submitting, then we’ll take a few more, but you must print them at 8×10 and bring them by the Scoop at 25th and Monroe.

• Free Bike Tune Ups We need to start planning our free bike tune ups for next year. The plan is one a month (March – Sept) in different parts of the city. We’re looking for under served folks, especially kids that can’t otherwise afford to get their bikes fixed up. If you have an area/organization/spot where you think we should be, email John at johnspeare@gmail.com.

• Organizational Goo We’ve been getting through the paperwork to prepare us for the 501(c)(3); we’ve talked to an attorney about liability; we’ve put in for some quotes for liability insurance; we’ve created articles of incorporation and bylaws; we’ve stared at a blank sheet of paper that should be a business plan. This is the stuff that none of us wants to do. The expense and overhead of dealing with the back office stuff is just hugely time consuming. We’re now going back to the idea of seeking out an umbrella org to work under; or in non-profit-speak, we are seeking Fiscal Sponsorship — ahem.

• Spring Dream A while back we posted the plan. As I read that now, I really like the Phase 1 stuff. It’s really what we want to be. The only change to that is that we’d like to get a space closer to downtown. Our donated garage is so sweet and so perfect a space. It’s the right size, it’s got everything we need, but it’s too far from the core of the city. We would love to find a space closer in; if we found that then the only change to our Phase 1 plan would be to add a “DIY” component to our program,where folks could come in and rent a workbench and do their own bike work.

This concept relies,obviously, on a space 1st, but it also relies on building up a strong core of volunteers that can staff a shop. We’re getting there. We’ve got some really good folks showing up regularly and who are skilled in different ways — some are bike wrenchy types, some are people people, some are just hard, autonomous workers. I think we’ll have enough folks to do at least 3 nights a week in the Spring and who knows, maybe a part of a weekend day too.

• Village Bike Project We finally sucked up and bought a trailer for P2P. This will allow us to stack bikes and do small runs out to Mountain Gear HQ without relying on guys with big trucks. We’ll likely do another push for bikes in Feb or so; at that point it would be great to be able to pick up bikes for some of the folks that call, so if you are a guy or a gal with a little truck and could do one run a month for us, we’d take it. Right now we have about 50 bikes at Mountain Gear and our goal is 500 by the end of the next summer. So we’ve got a lot of work to do.

• Bike To Work Week Our big outreach event this year is going to be the Bike to Work Week event. Last year we did the KHQ Kid’s Bike deal. The Bike to Work event is right up our alley: it’s all about getting folks that might otherwise not ride a bike past the hump, and on a bike getting to work. We’ll be doing some kind of pre-week events where we help triage bikes and fix minor issues. We also plan to be out in the field on one or two days during the week to fix issues, hand out scones, etc to commuters.

Our Scoop Photo event is closing in on us. Go here for more info and the rules.

So far we’ve got about 25 photos. They’re all great. You can view the digital ones here. I need to scan some others.

The last day to submit is Dec 3rd.

As for the calendar: we’ve not yet had a desk top publisher type fall out of the sky yet, but we are hopeful.