What is the Holiday Bike Drive?

Every year, the Community Cycling Center provides hundreds of children with their first bicycles, new helmets, and basic safety education. It is a huge, community-building event that we work toward all year long and culminates in one amazing day in December.

The magic of the Holiday Bike Drive from Community Cycling Center on Vimeo. By Chad Berkley

Why do we do it?

The magic of Holiday Bike Drive inspires and empowers over 400 children each year by providing them with the gift of bicycles and an opportunity to improve individual health.

We believe it’s important to bring safe bikes to underserved communities. Though Portland is known for being a livable, bicycle-friendly city, the reality is that the benefits of bicycles are not accessible to all of our residents. For many families, the cost of purchasing a bicycle for their children is a major obstacle.

Who can receive a bicycle?

The Holiday Bike Drive is designed to benefit children ages 3-8 from low-income families who qualify for free or reduced lunch and who do not currently own a bicycle. In 2012, the Holiday Bike Drive provided bicycles to 440 children from low income families from all across the Portland area, representing 18 different languages. We provide bikes to children only through our partner agencies. Registration is not open to the general public; only our partner agencies can register children.

When does registration happen?

Our partner agencies will register children for the 2013 Holiday Bike Drive beginning in the fall of 2013.  Registration is on a first come, first serve basis. We will update our partner agencies list in the fall of 2013. Please contact our partner agencies directly in order to register your child.

How do we make it all happen?

Holiday Bike Drive bicycles are donated by community members at bike collections around the Portland Metro region throughout the year. This year, over 500 volunteers will dedicate more than 7,000 hours to help collect, clean, and refurbish the bicycles as well as guide children through bicycle safety activities on the day of the event.

At the Holiday Bike Drive, a team of volunteer instructors will present a structured education program that teaches children and their parents basic bicycle safety, ranging from helmet placement to rider visibility and bicycle handling.

The kids not only need a bicycle, they also require safety accessories like helmets and reflectors, and most importantly, they require instruction on how to ride near and on roadways. Legacy Emanuel Hospital generously donates helmets for every new rider and training for our volunteers on proper helmet fitting techniques.

Last year, our volunteer interpreters helped teach these lessons in Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese, Mandarin, and Spanish.

Remember Your First Bike? short film

Remember Your First Bike? is a documentary film that debuted in March 2011 and was created by our volunteer filmmaker, Chad Berkley. This film celebrates our annual Holiday Bike Drive. View the 9-minute short film, below:

Remember Your First Bike? – short version from Chad Berkley on Vimeo.

To view the 30-minute version of this film, please click here.

How can I help?

Help give a child their first bicycle, a new helmet, and safety education this year!

1. Make a tax-deductible donation

You can sponsor a child at the Holiday Bike Drive for $50 – but your gift of any amount will make a huge difference!

You can make a donation online using our secure system; mail us a check; phone in a credit card number; or stop by our shop.

We also need gently-used bicycles to refurbish and give away – visit our bike donation page to learn more.

2. Organize a Giving Campaign

A giving campaign gathers motivated and passionate individuals together to support a common cause. It’s fun, makes a big difference, and we make it easy by providing all the materials you need. This is especially fun and effective at work – mobilize your coworkers to help give bikes to kids in need! What you need to do:

• Promote the campaign – we will send you all the materials.
• Organize a meeting or distribute giving envelopes and gift card order forms.
• We will then follow up with a letter to your group with a summary of your success!

Call Breesa at 503.288.8864 for materials.

3. Volunteer Your Time

The Holiday Bike Drive could not happen without the help of hundreds of volunteers. We will begin recruiting event volunteers in November, but there’s always work to be done! Come to our Tuesday volunteer nights to help prepare bikes for the Holiday Bike Drive and other projects.

Who else has helped?

Holiday Bike Drive is a community effort in every sense of the word. Besides the hundreds of individual donors and volunteers, many local businesses help promote the event and make it special for everyone involved. We thank these organizations for their incredible support of the 2012 Holiday Bike Drive:

Wilson Construction

Photos above by Lucas Balzer and Ben Latterell.