CAPITOLA — The Watsonville-based Community Bike Collective and local children’s author Taylor Lahey teamed up Saturday alongside other community organizations such as the Santa Cruz Waldorf School to host a bike exchange in Capitola where community members donate old bikes for BCycle passes.
“To make this an exchange rather than a clear, linear donation path, we reward people that participate with a BCycle pass,” said Lahey. “That way it creates a circular path and lets everyone get something out of the experience.”
The beat-up bikes were then refurbished by a small army of bike mechanics on-site Saturday, and would later be given to low-income residents in Live Oak.
“We had the Waldorf School just drop off about 20 bikes of all different sizes but mostly kids bikes,” said Lahey, who recently did a reading from his children’s book, “Câmbio,” at the school.
Lahey’s children’s book features an exchange program of a different variety where characters collect litter and exchange it for bus tokens, which was inspired by a program in Brazil.
“Imagine a world where you can pick up trash and do the right thing for your community and get rewarded for it,” said Lahey. “I found that so inspiring.”
The bicycle exchange event Saturday was similar to those organized by the Community Bike Collective, which partners with the Housing Authority of Santa Cruz County to provide refurbished bikes to low-income residents in the county and also hosts community rides. President of the Community Bike Collective, Alex Ponik, and others from the organization were helping out with the exchange Saturday.
“It’s been an awesome turnout,” said Ponik. “We’ve had more than 60 bikes donated and I think we’ll knock the majority of them out today. We have about 25 mechanics.”
Ponik explained that the Community Bike Collective has collected, fixed and given away about 350 bikes through its bike turnover program before the event Saturday, and was stoked to push that number past 400.
“Our primary focus is low-income residents in Santa Cruz County for not only our bike turnover program but also our ride program, which we partner with schools and nonprofits in the county,” said Ponik.
One of the main partners of the Community Bike Collective is the Housing Authority of Santa Cruz County, which helps unite low-income residents with the collective’s refurbished bikes.
“Today we’ll be going to a couple of properties in Live Oak and we’ve done this before in Watsonville,” said Daniel Fagan of the Housing Authority of Santa Cruz County. “This will be the first one we’ve done in North County. It’s been great for our residents to get access to bikes. It’s a means of transportation and recreation as well.”
Among the more than 20 mechanics helping to fix up the donated bikes Saturday was Living Evolution Executive Director River Krimmer and his 13-year-old son Skye. River Krimmer also helps to lead rides with the Community Bike Collective.
“We just did a ride yesterday where we took 16 youths from Watsonville mountain biking for the first time,” said River Krimmer. “I love this organization and what they stand for, and how they increase access to bikes for community members that wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford them.”
For information about upcoming rides and bike donations, visit communitybikecollective.org.
