By Henry Cotter, Digital Marketer
The unofficial end of summer, Labor Day, has come and gone and all of us at Sharing Wheels have been reflecting on all the activity that took place during the summer. Our monthly in-person outreach at the Everett Farmers Market has been everything we could have hoped for and more. We have met so many of our neighbors and have enjoyed informing them of our mission and our location. People constantly told us that they grew up in or near Everett and never knew about Sharing Wheels. The support we’ve received from the community, in donations and new volunteers, has been truly humbling.
Keeping People and Bikes Moving
Additionally, our Community Bike Program and Work for Wheels program has shown increased participation. We’ve had 6 people log hours towards our Work for Wheels program and 4 people have received free bikes through our Community Bike Program. We really feel these two programs epitomize our ultimate mission of keeping people and bikes moving! Two of the participants of the Community Bike Program, Chase and Deborah, are pictured above.
Our first full year of offering free Mobile Bike Repair Clinics has also been successful. We’re able to do these clinics thanks to a generous grant and we hope to continue to add to our locations next year. We’ve fixed an average of 9 bikes per clinic and we’ve greatly increased our awareness in Everett. We have two more clinics scheduled for the year, September 13 at Evergreen branch of Everett Public Library and September 27 at Mariner Library.
Online presence improved
We’ve also greatly improved our online presence. If you haven’t yet had a chance to see our new website store, then head over and take a peek at all our bikes, accessories and merch. This site is a showcase for our inventory and is being updated all the time. We encourage people to come into the shop to take a test ride and see our bikes firsthand. We have definitely seen an uptick in customers calling and stopping by the shop as a result of browsing our website first. All sales support the many free services and programs of Sharing Wheels Community Bike Shop.
Looking ahead
While we’ve been reflecting on our accomplishments, we’re still casting our eyes forward to the last quarter of the year. We’ll be restarting our kid bike workshops soon and need volunteers to help us refurbish kid bikes for kids in need.
Stay tuned for dates and information on all of these activities and so much more.