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Welcome to R Community Bikes!
RCB founders receive E-Chievement Award
Listen: Monday, June 24, 7:00 PM on WRUR, 88.5 FM in Rochester
eTown is a nationally syndicated radio show heard weekly on more than 300 radio stations in N. America. It is a 501(c)3 corporation whose mission is to educate, entertain and inspire a diverse audience through music and conversation, and to create a socially responsible and environmentally sustainable world. The E-Chievement Award is presented to individuals who make significant positive impacts on their communities. We are very proud that Dan Lill and Bill D'Anza, the co-founders of R Community Bikes, were selected! The interview before a live audience will be broadcast between June 19-25. The shows can be heard locally on WRUR-FM, can be streamed online, and are also available as podcasts. Check www.etown.org for more.
Latest edition of Spokes and Folks
Click here to read the May, 2013 issue of our newsletter.
Visit from Bikes Not Bombs, April 9, 2013
Stephen Bosco of Bikes Not Bombs in Boston, MA visited R Community Bikes on April 9th. Steve gave new meaning to the term "bike drop" as he delivered over 50 bikes and numerous wheels from BNB's facility in Boston. In exchange, Steve learned about what we do at RCB and is looking forward to applying that knowledge to his own program. Currently they send thousands of bikes overseas, sell reconditioned bikes and have an earn-a-bike program for inner-city youth. At this point they do not offer bike give aways or a repair service such as ours. We anticipate that this fruitful first visit will form the beginnings of a new cooperative relationship between RCB and its big brother, BNB. Our thanks to Stephen and all at RCB who made this initial visit so successful. Check out BNB's interesting programs at BikesNotBombs.org. To see more photos of Stephen's visit, click here.
Our new brochures and The Henderberg Foundation
Usually we wouldn't announce the arrival from the printers of a new batch of our brochures and business cards. In this case, however, we are indeed grateful to Jason Henderberg and The Henderberg Foundation for providing these materials free of charge. Their primary mission is helping charitable organizations striving to improve the quality of life in a community achieve their goals. Please check out this unusual organization and see some of the great projects they have supported. Thanks, indeed! The Henderberg Foundation
February edition of Spokes and Folks
Editor Carl Christensen brings us several photos showing what goes on at the shop when many folks thinks it's too cold to bike. Check out the February, 2013 issue
2012 Annual Report now available
Click here to compare our current operation with that in 2008, the year we generated our first annual report.
RCB recognized by the Farash Foundation
RCB was one of four charitable organizations recognized for outstanding Social Entrepreneurship by the Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation October 10. The Foundation presented the first-ever Farash Prize for Social Entrepreneurship, granted to people using business principles to make society better, who change a segment of society to make the community a better place.
Who We Are
R Community Bikes is a grassroots, 501(c)3 organization that collects and repairs used bicycles for distribution, free of charge, to Rochester, NY's most needy children and adults. Our mission is meeting the basic transportation needs of those in the community who depend on bikes for recreation as well as for transport to work, school, rehabilitation programs, and training sessions. For this segment of the population, both quality of life and the ability to participate in our community are greatly enhanced when our mission is achieved. R Community Bikes also provides a venue for the Rochester bicycling community to conduct educational programs relative to bicycle safety and maintenance. Click here to read our 2011 Annual Report.
We are open to the public Monday through Saturday from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm at our warehouse at 226 Hudson Ave. (at the intersection with Woodbury Street). Bike give-aways take place only on Wednesdays and Saturdays at the warehouse beginning at 9:30 AM. In addition, on Wednesdays in the summer we conduct bike repairs at St. Joseph's House of Hospitality at 402 South Avenue. Our telephone number is 585-234-2008.
We welcome donations of bikes, bike parts, tools and money to cover expenses such as spare parts. We are always in need of volunteers to serve as mechanics and a variety of other positions. We provide the necessary training.
Community Togetherness Makes a Real Difference
Conversations that matter: Chip Dawson befriended can and bottle recycler John H. and learned about the problems created when John's bicycle was stolen. Chip's letter to the editor triggered a sequence of events that resulted in John receiving reliable transportation. Read story...
How We Began
Fix a Flat and Then Some. What started out as one man's offer to fix a flat tire in the parking lot of a homeless shelter has developed into an incorporated, not for profit, 501(c)3 volunteer army that provides more than six hundred bicycles to Rochester NY's neediest citizens every year. Who would have thought!!
Bill D'Anza was serving lunch at St Joseph's House of Hospitality in the city when he was asked if he could do some minor bike repair for a guest. Bill willingly responded and soon drew a crowd in St. Joe's parking lot. Bill promised to return the next week, and out of that offer and the assistance of many new volunteers over the years, has come what is now R Community Bikes. Read full story...
Photo by Mike Crupi, courtesy of The Courier-Journal
