Our 14th Annual Bike Build was held last Saturday, April 13, 2024 at the TogetherSF warehouse on Mariposa Street in the Mission District. We had around 80 volunteers at the event, including over 20 Rotarians from the Rotary Club of San Francisco and other Rotary clubs. This year's event truly was a collaborative effort as we also had many volunteers from the YMCA, MWH/Webcor, and Gay4Good organizations.
Our volunteers arrived early Saturday morning to build nearly 150 bikes in just over three hours. We also had experts from YBike and the San Francisco Bike Coalition ensure that each bike was properly inspected and tested. Our partner, the Bayview Hunter's Point YMCA, helped to register over a hundred children in the Bayview area to receive a new bicycle.
By noon, families were already forming a line outside the warehouse and eager to get a new bike for their children. Once inside, each child was fitted with a new helmet and given a bike lock. Our volunteers then helped the kids select their bicycle as well as provide riding instructions. We also had two officers from the San Francisco Police Department Mission Station come to interact with and help the families. This collaborative community event was covered in local news by ABC, CBS, and NBC.Primary funding for the event was from the San Francisco Rotary Foundation. Combined with funding from the Rotary Club of San Francisco Greater Mission and Rotary Club of San Francisco Bayview, Rotarians helped to cover a total of 108 bikes, helmets, and locks. The Bayview Hunter's Point YMCA contributed an additional 35 bikes. We would like to thank our Bike Build Committee: Club Member Brian Lan was the lead coordinator; Club Member Chris Davies once again managed the bike, helmet, and lock purchases; President Sunny Singh, President-Elect Bob Hermann, and VP of Community Service Emily Borland all significantly helped with event logistics; and Secretary Nancy Graydon did a great job taking photos and videos.
We would like to thank our partners, the Bayview Hunter's Point YMCA and TogetherSF, for collaborating with us again on the Bike Build and helping to ensure that the event would make a significant impact on children in the Bayview area. We would like to thank YBike and the SF Bicycle Coalition for providing training, tools, and expertise that were invaluable in building the bikes. We also appreciate all our friends from MWH/Webcor and Gay4Good for contributing right from the start to help make the event a success.
Finally, a special thank you to 1-800-GOT-JUNK? for stepping up at the eleventh hour to donate their trucks to pick up all of the boxes and associated trash/recycling from the event. This was a significant contribution to the Bike Build.
