For some University students, bicycles arouse feelings of envy. As bikers whiz by them, students may wonder why they can't ride a bike to Cabell, thus cutting their walk time to class in half.
Yet bikes may arouse feelings of envy in the hearts of some Charlottesville residents for other reasons: They don't have the means to buy or repair a bike. Young kids may feel left out because they don't have a bike and their friends do, while some adults may need one for transportation, but don't have the means to attain one.
Community Bikes was formed just for these reasons. The organization started as a Yellow Bike Program, an initiative begun in Europe that leaves bikes in various places around a city for anyone to use. With the city of Charlottesville's support, the Yellow Bike program got started, but because of theft, it morphed into a community bike shop that works to donate bikes and bike parts to low-income kids.
According to Alexis Zeigler, president of the Board of Volunteer Coordinators, the Community Bikes has "a combination of volunteers from across the city and quite a few students."
As soon as the program teamed up with Madison House, students quickly became involved.
"There has been so much interest in the Community Bikes Program that we have had to close the program to new volunteers," Madison House Office Manager Deb Stoughton said.
Community Bikes takes donations of either bikes or bike parts of all types on Fridays and Saturdays from 2 to 5 p.m. The program is currently thriving, according to Ziegler, so there are few plans to develop the program.
"We don't really look to expand right now," Ziegler said. "There's a huge demand for bicycles, but what we really need right now is a solid core of trained volunteers and a more substantial organization."
For now, Community Bikes is a thriving philanthropic organization that has received wonderful feedback.
"People just flood in there," Zeigler said.
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