A generous spirit

Posted by Kathleen_McCoy

Posted: August 17, 2009 - 2:16 am

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Off The Chain Collecctive:: Want to learn how to fix your own bike and save some money? That's what this local bike organization offers.This is a thumb's-up to the subject of an article appearing in Monday's Anchorage Daily News about the Off The Chain Bicycle Cooperative by Elizabeth Bluemink.

I'm a recreational rider in Anchorage who wishes she knew more about fixing her own bike. Over the years I've noticed some great opportunities -- workshops by the Alaska Dirt Divas or REI on bike maintenance. These are wonderful, but frankly, I've failed to fit these events into my schedule. Now, with the bike cooperative, I know there is a bigger window to accomplish my goal of learning bike maintenance.

Something else. I happen to work at the University of Alaska Anchorage, where the UAA Bike Club, a strong supporter of the Off The Chain Bicycle Cooperative, is based. I learned about the bike cooperative through the club. I see the same spirit in the student bike club that I see in the cooperative. It's a can-do assist by those in the know for those who want to know. This spring, the bike club offered some free tune-ups on campus for bike commuters. I like the generosity of spirit that I see in this.

Because I work at UAA, I also know that this student bike club also passed a resolution encouraging the university to make the campus more bike friendly in winter by plowing bike routes and creating covered winter bike storage at three locations on campus. Now, I understand that the student bike club is working on creating these three locations on campus for a total of 60 bikes to enjoy covered bike stands in winter, with funding help from the university. This is so cool it makes me smile. I've not been brave enough to commute to work on my bike in winter, but I hope that's in my future. The idea of getting back on my bike at the end of a day in the office -- and not having the seat under three inches of snow, might make my goal more achievable.

The other thing I know about this bike club is it successfully raises money on campus to support biking projects locally and around the world. For three springs, they have hosted a bachelor/bachelorette auction (even Chancellor Fran Ulmer offered herself up for a date). They've given the money they raised away to bike projects. One was the Kona Biketown & Africa Project that worked to provide bikes for health workers in Africa. According to member and current president Matt Block, the club runs a satellite bike shop over at the Mountain View Boys & Girls Club to help kids there get bikes and keep them running well. When my friend Rosemary decided to give away her son's old bike, we donated it to the collective, hoping it may end up over at the Mountain View Boys & Girls Club.

So my point? I commend the generosity of spirit that both the bike cooperative and the club present, and I appreciate the story in the Anchorage Daily News. Stories like this, that aren't court, crime or politics-driven, may be rarer these days as the ranks of the reporting staff contract. On the other hand, it's community stories like these that tell us about ourselves and also highlight some of our positive characteristics. An old mentor of many local journalists, Howard Weaver, used to say, "Not all news breaks. Sometimes it oozes." Stories like this make me remember that. Communities aren't only made up of the important but never-ending agendas of crime, court and political breaking news. Community news counts, too.