Volunteering at Bikes for Humanity PDX March 12th-14th, 2020

A broken frame with all its parts pulled

At Bikes for Humanity PDX we let volunteers tackle bike projects from taking in donations to taking the final test ride on a finished bike, or even adopting the bike themself through our earn-a-bike program. We also let volunteers run the shop, manage communications, and even contribute to our blog. With in-person programs suspended, we hope to have more online content available, and more online interaction for volunteers posted. Enjoy this contribution from a volunteer who started his experience on Thursday before the pandemic brought life-as-we-know-it to a stand still, and ended his goal of 24 hours with this blog post:

I started looking for places to give back to the community to volunteer and wanted to do something I would enjoy. I found bikes for humanity pdx online, I gave them a call I spoke with Greg and he was very nice and helpful. He got me scheduled in for the following week. On the first day I learned so many new things about Bikes for Humanity and what they do. The first day volunteering I met Andrew. He is an awesome guy and knows everything about bikes there is to know. I Started off taking a wheel apart and by the time I was done volunteering I took apart a whole bike. Bikes for Humanity is a non profit organization run by great people they are very kind and intelligent when it comes to bikes. They offer volunteer work to anyone, they dont judge you and everyone is super nice and friendly. It is a very comfortable environment. I knew nothing about mountain bikes as when I was younger I always rode bmx bikes. Andrew showed me about the gearing and how to take apart a mountain bike chain, install a new one and test out the gears after. The Bike Shop has all the bike tools you would need to take any bike apart and put it all back together. They actually have multiple of each tool so more than one person can work on a bike at a time. The cool thing about the shop is how they run. They will work with anyone trying to get back on the road again. There was a bike they had waiting to donate to someone in need and it got stolen from outside the shop. Andrew found another bike they donated to the man free of charge. If you have a bike that needs work you can either pay the shop to fix it for the best price in town or you can trade volunteer time for shop time and fix it yourself with the tools. If it is something simple and quick they will just help you fix it real fast free of charge. They do 2 hours of volunteer time equals 1 hour of shop time for you to work on your own bike.

In this picture above is a picture of a bike that a customer found that they liked. As a closer inspection he found there was a nice crack in the frame. This was the bike that I took apart on the last day I volunteered at the bike shop. I had lots of help. There are always other volunteers there and the workers will help you out and teach you anything you need to fix. I helped many customers that came in and had little problems on their bikes. If I didn't know how to do it someone would help and show us the right way to get the job done right and safely. If anyone is interested in volunteering and giving back to the community and they like the bikes in general or if they wanna learn more about bikes and how to work on them this is the place to do it. I am so glad I decided to go with Bikes for Humanity for my volunteering. It was a really fun experience. I learned so much about bikes and got my hands a little dirty. It felt good helping people that needed things done with their bikes as there are a lot of bicyclists in the Portland area. They are located in a nice neighborhood off of 33rd and Powell. You can donate a bike there. You can buy a bike there, get parts or work on your bike there. You can adopt a bike either by buying one outright or volunteering to earn a bike that you want, which is really cool cause if you don't have any money but want or need a bike you can work for them and get a bike. They also offer an educational bike class every Thursday evening from 5pm to 7pm for free. At the class you will learn about important bike things and skills. They demonstrate on a bike how to fix a certain thing. On Thursday night at the class we learned about different brakes and brake cables and how to tell the differences between brake cables and installed some as a team. They will get you in fast and they will get your bike back riding safely very quickly.they have a huge inventory of bikes and bike parts. They do very good honest work and aren't just there to take your money. We need more places like this in our community! I am so glad I got the chance to volunteer for Bikes for Humanity PDX. It was a pleasure meeting all the people that work there, all the other volunteers and also all the people that came in to get work on their bike done. Everyone is so friendly and nice. I give them a thumbs up and would love to do more volunteer work for them in the future possibly. Andrew is a very nice humble guy and I'm thankful I met him and got the opportunity to volunteer for this wonderful establishment.

All of the great services and programs we are offer are indefinitely on hold unfortunately. Stay tuned for a return date, and consider sharing your bike story for others to feel more connected!