Intel builds fifty bikes for the Holiday Bike Drive
We’re so fortunate to have a broad base of business supporters in the Portland Metro Area, and for the past decade Intel has been one of the most loyal and generous members of this esteemed club. Over the years, they have donated bikes, brought in volunteer groups to clean them and encouraged employees to support us through a workplace giving program.
On Saturday, October 29th, they really outdid themselves, building and donating 50 brand-new bikes for our Holiday Bike Drive.
Intel is an annual sponsor of the annual Net Impact Conference, and this year they decided to up their involvement by coordinating a volunteer activity for attendees. According to Suzanne Fallender, a communications director at Intel, “there were lots of volunteer event ideas our team proposed – but given Portland’s fanaticism around biking, we decided to do a bike-building event over the lunch hour, with bikes donated to the Community Cycling Center for their Holiday Bike Drive.”
We worked with Intel’s staff to select bikes, focusing on the tiny, 12-inch-wheel models that we’re always scrambling for in the final months of the year. They then purchased 50 Huffy Rock-Its and Sea Stars, along with adjustable wrenches and pumps from our shop, and engaged 100 volunteers in building them from the box. Within an hour, the crew had assembled all the bikes, and they hauled them straight to the front door of our shop.
We couldn’t pull off the Holiday Bike Drive without generous, creative contributions like this one, and we want to offer our deepest thanks to the Intel employees and Net Impact conference attendees who had a hand in this amazing contribution.
To read more about the event, click here. And if you’re interested in scheduling a bike build with your workplace, contact Volunteer@CommunityCyclingCenter.org for details.
To view more photos, click here.
Photos by Suzanne Fallender