Give a Gift:  Yellow Bike celebrates its 28^th birthday in May!

A lot has changed since 1997 when a small group of volunteers created Austin Yellow Bike, but Yellow Bike’s mission has remained the same:  improve people’s lives through bicycles.  Today we do this by focusing on two objectives: giving bikes to those in need and promoting bike literacy.

We give bicycles to those in the community who would not otherwise have access to them. During the last two years we donated 1,979 bikes to adults and children. The adult recipients have included recent immigrants to the U.S., people transitioning from homelessness, and others who simply needed transportation to get to a job or school. For the child recipients, the bikes were a way to get to school, visit a friend, get some exercise, and just have fun.

A New Immigrant Gets His Own Bike

In addition to giving bikes away, we offer programs to promote bicycle literacy. Just as reading literacy gives people power over their lives, bicycle literacy gives people control over their personal mobility and equips them with the confidence and the skills necessary to change a flat, oil a chain, and adjust a gearshift. We promote understanding about bikes and how they work through classes, workshops, teen learning, and our “Earn a Bike” program.

Youth Worksop

We are proud of what we have accomplished since 1997, but the need for reliable, inexpensive, and sustainable, transportation in our community is greater than ever.  And the reality is - meeting that need requires funds.  Here are some examples:

• It costs about $20 to include a new helmet with every donated bike.
• It costs about $150 to intake a donated bike, evaluate and refurbish it, and donate it to a person along with a new lock, light, and helmet.
• It costs about $450 per student to conduct our Ride to the Future program, in which high school students come to our shop ten times over the course of a semester to learn bicycle repair skills.

I invite you to join us in making our community a more sustainable, equitable, and welcoming place. As we celebrate National Bike Month and Yellow Bike’s 28^th birthday in May I am asking you to make a contribution to support this organization that literally moves people and changes lives.

Donations as part of this campaign will be matched up to $7,000 by commitments from Yellow Bike's current and past board members!

Thank you!!

Jim Robertson, Yellow Bike Board Member