We have some good news to share: Earn a Bike turns 20 this year!
That's right! Community Bike Works' first Earn a Bike class began in the summer of 1995, and our official grand opening was on September 20 of that year.
Can you guess how many students we have mentored in 20 years of Earn a Bike? We looked through old files and added up some numbers.
In our first Earn a Bike class:
18young people participated
11 earned their bicycles
Today, we serve more than 300 students in Earn a Bike a year! In total, in our first 20 years of Earn a Bike:
3,129 young people participated
2,553 earned their bicycles
more than 80% of all who began the program!
That's a lot of kids, and a lot of bikes! But, as we've been saying for 20 years, what really counts is the story of each student who participated, and the life lessons they learned along the way.
Over the next year, we'll share with you 20 (or so) of our favorite stories and milestones from the last 20 years.
You'll see how our students have grown up with us (and how our amazing volunteers have grown right along with them), how we've added programs and expanded our bike shop to better serve our students, and, generally, how we've become the strong and vibrant youth development program we are today.
We'll be planning activities to celebrate 20 years of Earn a Bike over the course of the year, including at least one anniversary bike ride. Our celebration will culminate in March of 2016 with a gala event. Please look for details on all these events. We hope you'll be able to join us!
Happy birthday to Earn a Bike, and many, many more to come! And thanks to you, our friends, for coming along on this amazing ride.
Kim Schaffer,
Executive Director
PS. What's your Earn a Bike story? If you have a favorite story or photo we should see from any of the 20 years of Earn a Bike, please share it with us! Email [email protected]
If you know a former student or volunteer who should be getting these emails, please use the link at the bottom of this email to share this with them.
