Community bike shop vs. COVID-19
Elgin Bike Hub is a community nonprofit organization using bicycles to make Elgin a healthier, happier, and more equitable community. We focus on community connections, mobility for all, and access to opportunities. In the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, we are trying to move up a timeline on our community bike shop. This project is in response to the transportation poverty that has existed and will continue to deepen as the impacts of the crisis hit our community. To be able to implement this plan, we are seeking financial assistance.
The fact that the city of Elgin does not have a bicycle shop within its city limits may appear to be a problem best suited for economic development organizations looking to incubate or recruit new businesses, but mobility is a basic human need. Even prior to our current crisis, our transportation systems had inequities built into them. Reliance on personal automobiles for access to resources and opportunities requires an average of $8.5k (according to AAA), which can quickly put families into tenuous financial positions or be downright prohibitive. Age, ability, and documentation status can all be exclusionary forces to the use of personal automobiles as well. While we are advocates for our public transportation system, it has always struggled to serve our community due to funding and challenges inherent to the suburban built environment. In the Covid-19 crisis, public transportation faces challenges related to social distancing, as well as acute resource challenges. These systems did not serve everyone before the crisis, they cannot during it, and they will not after it.
Bicycles as transportation have always been a part of the solution in our transportation systems, even when it has gone unrecognized and unsupported. There have been riders that have needed to resort to bicycles as their means to get around in Elgin as long as there have been bicycles in Elgin. Probably for as long, there have also been riders who have chosen to ride a bike for transportation, whether for fitness, environmental, or other reasons. While we desire to serve everyone, our priority is to establish a community bike shop that provides affordable access and support for people to make use of bicycles as a more affordable transportation option in Elgin.
Elgin Bike Hub brings a wealth of resources to meet this challenge. For the past three years, our organization has been doing outreach, education, and community organizing to bring people out in their neighborhoods and connecting them with their neighbors, using bicycles as our tool for engagement. As we move toward launching a community bike shop, we have experienced volunteer staff in place to provide the services and community outreach required. The lack of access to service and resources to support bicycles as transportation in Elgin is a need that Elgin Bike Hub is prepared to address with your support.
While we continue to cultivate a broad fundraising base in the community, we are concerned that the shock this crisis has caused for households makes fundraising more challenging than ever. With this in mind we are reaching out to those who may yet have the capacity and the vision to recognize the critical need and help us meet it. At this urgent time, would you be able to help Elgin Bike Hub to enable us to move into a space and begin providing essential services to our community?
Our fundraising efforts at this point are a mix of established commitments and outstanding requests. We currently have commitments of over $6,000 in grassroots fundraising specifically for this project, in addition to the standing organizational operating budget that provides complementary support. We also have pledges for volunteer labor that are valued at over $40,000. We continue to pursue grassroots fundraising and grant applications to a variety of local organizations, agencies, and foundations. Additional information is available at www.elginbikehub.com/bikeshop. Thank you for your consideration.
Stay well and happy pedaling,
Parker
EBH Board Chair