It must be spring because it’s time for the Annual P2P Garage Sale. Come to the P2P garage for crazy deals on bikes, parts, and even a dorm fridge. The address is 4218 S Garfield, and the sale will be in the garage and alley located at the rear of the house. Please park on the street and not in the alley. Last year’s sale was a huge success, and we’re hoping to have another great sale this year. All proceeds fund Pedals2People’s programs.

As always, your support is appreciated. We couldn’t exist without your help!

Our spring and summer months always fill because it’s bike season in Spokane. After meeting yesterday, we updated our events calendar, committed to 4 free bike tune ups (two of then in areas of town we haven’t been to yet), have 2 fundraisers and 3 other community events scheduled. During March, we’re going to open the shop on Monday nights too, from 8-10pm, perfect for anyone who works late or has trouble sneaking away until after the kiddos are asleep. Please check out our events calendar Here’s a quick breakdown…

Fundraisers:

April 12, Paris-Roubaix at the Steam Plant Grill, 1-4pm

July 26, Apple-Charlotte Mexican Feast, 4-6pm

Free Bike Tune-Ups:

April 25, West Central Neighbor Days,10-2 (AM Cannon Park)

May 29,East Central Carnival, 2-7 (East Central Community Center)

July 19, South Perry St Fair, 10-2 (parking lot of The Shop on Perry)

August 1, Hillyard Festival, 10-2 (Harmon park)

Other Events:

Earthday, April 26th, Gondola Meadows in Riverfront Park

Bike-to-Work Kick Off, May 11th, Gondola Meadows in Riverfront Park

Spokefest Bike Swap, September 13th, Post St and Spokane Falls Blvd

Tomorrow marks Spokane’s first ever bike summit. All bike groups, shops, co-ops, touring companies, and two media groups will convene at the Steam Plant Friday for the event. Folks will meet or get reacquainted with eachother. We’ll have the opportunity to tell our stories. We’ll have plenty of time to listen to eachother and ask questions. Thanks to the Bicycle Advisory Board for bringing all of us together. Hopefully the effects of the energy you put into this event will ripple throughout the community.

We’ll try Weds nights this month. 6-8 pm at the garage.

More info about the garage on our Projects page.

Meeting has a bad connotation in today’s world. When we think of the word, things like drudgery, boring, and waste-of-time probably come to mind, and that’s if you’re feeling generous. I taught for three years and all of us, teachers and administrators alike, gave a collective groan whenever we had meetings to attend. Committee meetings were the worst.

Last saturday at our annual meeting, there was no groaning. In fact, we laughed, did some push-ups, ate, and rode our bikes to check out the new shelving and workbench that Duane and Eric have masterfully built. We also worked through the details for the upcoming year. When things actually get done and you throw in a bit of fresh air,meetings aren’t so bad. Here’s what we all agreed to focus on for 2009:

*5 Free Bike Tune Ups–South Perry and West Central will be the same,but we’ll also go to the Sprague and Hillyard neighborhoods in ’09. More of these events will be pedal-powered since we’re no longer collecting bikes for Ghana.
*No more bikes abroad for now; we’re going to focus on the local community this coming year.
*Memberships for Do-It-Yourself (DIY) shop users. Details to come…
*Grants in the upcoming year, with possible funding for a paid part-time position.
*Grants to fund our two main projects: free tune ups & DIY shop.
*New shop opening this spring/summer in a central location.

Check out our “about p2p” link for our core values, priority projects, and guiding principles.

wow–this is right around the corner! P2P has been at the bike co-op business for nearly 2 years now, and it’s time again for our annual meeting. last year’s meeting was a potluck with lots of food and a bike ride followed the info and chow. it was fun and laid back, and in the spirit of keeping it simple, that’s what we’re planning for this year’s meeting as well :,,) we love meeting new folks, so bring your bike and a dish to share! potluck starts at 5 and things should be wrapping in up in time for a ride by around 7pm. if you’re interested in hearing what we’ll be up to in the coming year, please come. if you have questions or suggestions, this is a great opportunity to be heard. please RSVP by calling 842-6597 or sending an email to pedals2people@gmail.com and i can give you the necessary info.

On Thursday, we got the big letter from the IRS:

Dear Applicant:

We are pleased to inform you that upon review of your application for tax exempt status we have determined that you are exempt from Federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contribut6ions to you are detutible under section 170 of the Code. You are also qualified to receive tax deductible bequests, devises, transfers or gifts under section 2055, 2106 or 2522 of the Code…

This is a huge milestone for our organization and comes at a good time as we look to focus on our planning and growth for the coming year.

Cheers!

Some changes are afoot at the garage.

Our regular hours will be changing for the Fall/Winter. Instead of regular Monday/Weds nights, we’ll be doing sort of ad hoc garage hours based on volunteer availability.

To find out when we’re open, consult our event calendar. Our goal is to update the calendar a couple weeks out. We’re just getting October figured out now, so there’s nothing there. But keep an eye on it; we’ll be adding some slots over the next week or so.

Come next spring, hopefully we’ll be able to do our Monday/Weds again and maybe a weekend day. And with some luck we’ll have another space closer to the flat part of town.

This is a community bike resource, so it relies 100% on community volunteers to run. We need trustworthy, smart, happy volunteers to help run this thing. If you’re interested, email Liza at pedals2people at gmail.com

On a related note: if you go to the garage to work on a bike, you should expect to learn. None of the volunteers that staff our garage are experts. We’re all hacks — well, except for Liza — , but we’re all passionate about bikes,community,and working together. If you want expertise: go to a bike shop. If you want to learn and teach: come to our community shop.

More info on our community shop on our Projects page.

This morning I had a great ride to work. Nothing fancy, no crazy tricks, no landing jumps, no racing cars up hill, no in depth discussions with auto drivers about why I should or shouldn’t be riding on the sidewalk. Just a great, quiet ride with sprinkling rain. I don’t have fenders because lately they make me crash, so I got dirty – that part was also great. The weather was perfect, the gray sky was beautiful and it felt so good to be riding my bike. i love my bike. i guess this is a romantic, sappy post about nothing really, but i had to tell someone. I guess I had a honeymoon moment this morning. I have been commuting pretty religiously for awhile now but still feel like I am not yet a “hardcore commuter” (whatever that means) so I guess I ride around trying to be real serious most of the time – you know paying close attention to every side street, pothole, pedestrian – all those important things. But this morning on my ride,I mostly just thought. Thought about things and about the road and the rain,and whatever – it was great! I got to work completely relaxed and happy – hopefully I can carry this throught the rest of the day. Does anyone else have amazing regular ole rides like this?

i saw an old friend, lisa, at the free tune-up event today. she was with her family at the fair. zoe showed me her balloon doggie. lisa came over to say hi, and asked if i always worked. the last time we saw each other was when she stopped by where i work to ask about a new bike. she was smiling when she asked me this question, and i smiled when i responded, “this isn’t work. this is fun!”

ask any of the P2P volunteers that were there today, and they’ll tell you the same thing: we had a ball! it’s exhausting, rewarding, satisfying, and totally enjoyable to do a tune-up event. but a lot like when you cook a yummy meal for your friends. you feel happy providing something homemade that brings people together and nurtures the soul. i feel the same way about these tune-up events. we provide something good, but we get so much happiness in return. beth, mike,john,ken, ben, jace and klay worked so smoothly together today. it was awesome being a part of it all.

The Shop hosted us at their spot from 10-2, just like they did last year. Thanks guys for the awning, the bottomless container of cold water, and the huge chunk of space in your parking lot. don’t forget to check out the summer movies at the Shop this summer. Top Gun shows tonight at dusk! http://www.theshop.bz/