Oh the Bikes 4 Humanity!
May is the Bicycle Transportation Alliance’s #BikeMore Challenge in Portland. In celebration of what bikes mean to Conveyor and its community, we spoke with Bikes for Humanity PDX’s board member and team promotions leader Andrew Shaw-Kitch about how the organization got its start, what services it provides and how they benefit our community.
Bikes for Humanity PDX was founded by local bicycling enthusiast Steven Kung as a way to “create community from the bicycle,” Shaw-Kitch says. Kung was amazed by the power of group rides to unite people of diverse backgrounds in a common goal, build friendships and inspire riders with mechanical knowledge to help their co-riders make repairs.
Today, the 501(c)(3) not-for-profit’s driving purpose is to lower the financial obstacles to becoming a self-sufficient bike commuter. It aims to do this by teaching people to fix their own bikes, refurbishing and redistributing donated bicycles at affordable prices, offering grants and financial aid for bicycle purchases and offering volunteer bike repairs at community events. Bikes for Humanity PDX also takes part in the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School program, granting bicycles to successful graduates (they’ve donated 90 so far).
“Every day, bikes are scrapped and someone is deprived of the choice to make the trip by bike,” says Shaw-Kitch. But if those bikes can make it into the hands of Bikes for Humanity’s volunteers, the outcome will be much more positive. And Bikes for Humanity PDX will continue to do everything it can to make that a reality. Shaw-Kitch foresees the organization expanding its community involvement in the future. “We will continue to provide free repairs and tune-ups at dozens of external events each year,” he says. “We will also continue to be a resource to the community for free mechanical training and education, affordable safe bikes and opportunities to gain experience in the bike world.”
In the end, the outcomes inspired by Bikes for Humanity PDX’s mission seem to come full circle to what initially inspired Kung to start the organization. “Whether we teach somebody to patch a tube and they pass on that skill to a friend, or whether we grant a young commuter the opportunity to continue the skills learned through the Safe Routes to School program, we make our communities stronger and healthier every time a Portlander chooses to ride a bike,” says Shaw-Kitch.
In short, the revolution that made Portland great is the kind that new bicyclists are making every day, thanks to groups like Bikes for Humanity PDX. And the path to continued greatness is paved and down by the river, or marked by a white line and a bike box. Please join Conveyor as we do our part make this May the most pedaled month in Portland history. Let’s pedal.
Read more about Andrew Shaw-Kitch’s journeys by bike and beyond in An Unauthorized Guide to The Parks of the World.
