Bikes not Bombs is a small local charity that uses the bicycle to drive social change in communities both here in Boston and with several overseas partners in the Global South. They work to teach mechanical skills, provide bikes to health service workers, turn bicycles into pedal-powered machines, organize communities rallying to stop climate change, and distribute thousands of refurbished bikes.
I've been volunteering with Bikes Not Bombs for more than three years. In total, I’ve spent around 600 hours there- taking apart bikes at volunteer night, loading containers to be shipped overseas, hosting and helping out with bike collection drives, volunteering, riding, and fundraising for the annual Bike-a-Thon, helping the youth program build a bicycle-powered blender, and organizing tables for the annual Building Momentum Breakfast fundraiser. Every Thursday, I head to the Bikes not Bombs hub for volunteer night. The niche that I’ve fallen into is stripping bikes: taking the useful components off of frames that are they are unable to ship. On days that I’m not stripping bikes, I flatten bikes so they can fit more efficiently into the container, teach others how to strip and flatten bikes, sort parts into bins, and do any other miscellaneous work that needs to be done. Volunteer night is a great way to gain bike mechanic skills, and I know I’ve learned so much in the time that I have spent there. Many of these bikes that we work on during volunteer night get shipped overseas. During the last container loading we packed more than 500 bikes to Cycloville in Kenya. These bikes will help grow the cycling industry in Kenya, create opportunity and employment for the urban poor youth from the slums, and support the Learn to Ride program for low-income women in Mathare. There are many other locations Bikes not Bombs ships to, such as the Amuru Village Health Team, Bici-Tec in Guatemala, CESTA, Cycloville and the Village Bicycle Project. (More information is available here: https://bikesnotbombs.org/international) These donated bikes come from bike collection drives, which take place all over Massachusetts. After attending a few local bike drives to help flatten donated bikes, I was able to learn enough to help host them. Twice I’ve co-hosted a bike drive in Acton organized and publicized by local high school students. We taught the students how to flatten bikes, collected donations, and gave people information about the organization. The students did a great job letting people know we were going to be there, and we were able to collect around 70 bikes during each of these bike drives. Bikes Not Bombs fundraises through a variety of events each year; two of the main events are the Building Momentum Breakfast and Bike-a-Thon. For the past three years, I have organized one of the ten tables at the Building Momentum Breakfast, inviting the regular Thursday night volunteers, my cycling friends and co-workers. During this event, we enjoy breakfast from Ula Café, stories from individuals who have been impacted by Bikes Not Bombs, a short video, and some guest speakers. This event has raised over $50,000 in each of the three years that I have participated. The other fundraising event that I participate in is the Bike-a-Thon; a ride with routes available to cyclists of all abilities. I volunteered at my first Bike-a-Thon setting up and sweeping the last portion of the 80 mile route to make sure everyone got in safely and with no mechanical issues. The next Bike-a-Thon, I fundraised and rode the 100 mile route. It was an awesome ride, with a great support team and delicious food. Another way that Bikes not Bombs fundraises is by bringing their bike powered blender (bici-blender) to office spaces, schools, and events to showcase and celebrate pedal-powered technology. The bici-blender provides a segue into the work that Carlos Marroquin does at Bici-Tec in rural Guatemala. Bici-Tec invents, teaches about, and manufactures pedal-powered agricultural machines such as fuel water pumps, coffee depulpers, and more. I was fortunate enough to be able to work with Carlos and the youth program to manufacture a second bici-blender using the equipment at the Stonybrook Fine Arts Center. With Carlos’ guidance, we welded together the frame and repurposed a broken electric blender. Later on, when the original bici-blender broke, I redesigned and welded the broken frame back together. I was able to get these repairs done just in time for the original bici-blender to be used at a big fundraising event. Bikes not Bombs is a charity that I love to volunteer with; the organization and the people who staff it are one of the main reasons why I choose to reside in Jamaica Plain. Bikes not Bombs has something for everyone to enjoy, the volunteer work there is engaging, the staff is incredibly driven and passionate about their mission, and the organization makes a visible impact on all the communities that they work with. |