Charitable Contributions
A peak into some of the WHO and WHY…
As reported recently, your PBC board determined different local beneficiaries with which to share our hard-earned money to promote cycling. We sought club input through the newsletter and at club meetings. There was not a lot of response.
Prior to December 20, when decisions were made, I contacted previous recipients to see if they could still use help. Here are responses and/or my own comments explaining reasoning behind donations.
1. COMMUNITY CYCLING CENTER: PBC DONATION $1,500
Community Camps are 100% FREE and every camper is provided with:
- A bicycle that they get to keep as bikes and funding are available!
- A safe environment to play, take risks, develop new skills, and cultivate friendship – in other words, to be a kid! ✎
- New helmet, lights, lock, and weather-appropriate cycling clothing.
- Instruction in bike safety, basic maintenance, navigation, and nature-focused exploration.
- Breakfast, lunch and snacks each day.
$500/per camper/per week. Donating $1,500 and specifying in the cover letter with the check that we want it to go to scholarships, we will help three youngsters have a wonderful summer experience.
2. BIKE FARM: PBC DONATION $500
Bike Farm is an all-volunteer-run collective dedicated to every aspect of bicycle education, from safe commuting to repair [from their mission statement].
Comments from Alex of Bike Farm:
“… we provide work stands and tools for DIY/DIT (do it together) bike builds or maintenance, and we also offer mostly used bike parts, accessories, and complete bikes for sale at good prices to the community. We use donations to cover our operating expenses, such as rent, insurance, utilities, repairs after attempted break-ins (ha-ha), bicycle repair tools, consumables such as shop-rags and lubes and degreasers, and so forth.”
“We are an all-volunteer collective, and no one takes a wage or a salary. Your donations have been greatly appreciated and go a longer way than you might expect! Especially in the slow winter season, our stand usage and sales drop off, as you’d expect, so it’s always nice to receive charitable contributions.”
“Thanks again, and let us know if you have any questions.”
3. ST. MATTHEW’S ANGLICAN CHURCH: PBC DONATION $500
St Matthew’s, at NE Skidmore Street and NE 112th Avenue, is a frequent, private, ride start location. We often use parks, Park & Rides, and other public locations. We have used the church’s parking lot for several decades now, and the board has felt compelled to reward their hospitality with a donation. Their graciousness, including access to their bathroom (!), is very much appreciated. Recently, we started having our monthly club meetings at St. Matthew’s, and the board felt it was important to differentiate between RENT for the meeting room and ACCESS to the parking lot and bathroom for rides. Therefore, a donation.
4. THE STREET TRUST: PBC DONATION $500
Brittany Morris, Development Director (you may remember her from Community Cycling) responded in part:
“Some recent wins that we are particularly proud of, which I believe will resonate with the needs and values of the club’s members are”:
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“Helping protect Broadway Bike Lane. Here’s more media coverage.”
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“Although Bike Portland fails to give us credit, The Street Trust secured the first $50M in Great Streets funding via IIJA [Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act 2021], another $1M in 2023 legislative session, and is poised to win another $70M for the program in the next STIP [Statewide Transportation Improvements Program].”
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“Madi Carlson, our Education & Engagement Director’s accomplishments with providing bike education to those who need it most. This includes introducing and teaching womxn, trans, nonbinary and two-spirit riders how to bike tour/bike camp. This education includes supplemental gear support including helmets, lights, saddle bags, tarps, headlamps and meals! Madi also teaches many virtual workshops which go over well when the rain comes.”
Brittany did ask for $2,500 to help support one bike camping trip that Madi leads for up to 20 different riders. I personally like to support The Street Trust for their advocacy for strong laws and safe streets. PBC is not an advocacy organization, so I like to help them do that for all of us.
5. BIKE INDEX: PBC DONATION $400
Bryan Hance, of Bike Index, responded to my request as follows [in 2023]:
“We built a ‘bike thief/fence tracker’ with computer science students from PCC that I describe here: Bike Index’s New Tool in the Fight against Bike Crimes…to start collecting and disseminating info on all the bad guys we have, since none of the online sales platforms (Pinkbike, Facebook, OfferUp) care at all that thieves operate on their sites.”
“We integrated our systems with the Alberta Bike Swap (ABS), which doesn’t immediately affect folks here in Oregon; however, the ABS people are planning to sell/lease their bike swap management software to other bike swaps across North America in the future, so we’ll be integrated right into that process from here on out as other state swaps start using them.” 😊
Also, Bryan alluded to something else brewing. He and his partner are working on a specific theft matter and have been since 2015 that will become more public this year.
And Bryan rode his first STP in 2023 and plans to ride again this year.
In conclusion, that explains several of our donations, and PBC member Dave McQuery shares an update about the donation to Stub Stewart/Banks-Vernonia State Trail If you need or want more information, please let me know. I’d be happy to talk to you about these or other donations.
We make every effort to gather your (the members’) input. We very seriously discuss these recipients and judiciously spend the money you worked so hard to raise for PBC.
As members, I hope you value these community relationships as well. These donations tend to be obscured to some – a flaw in the distribution process. We will continue to try to remedy that.
Ann Morrow, President