Many days and also many years of love for Cycle Oregon
From left to right: Yashar Vasef, Kasandra Griffin, and Jackie Yerby
Five staff members and twelve volunteers had a great time riding and working around eastern Oregon September 8th – 15th on the “Cycle Oregon Classic” ride. The week-long adventure travels a different route in rural Oregon each year, exploring the many beautiful parts of this state and bringing money and guests to rural communities. The Community Cycling Center has a special relationship with Cycle Oregon – a grant from them provided seed money for the Cycling Center to get started, way back in 1994.
Currently, the Community Cycling Center raises money to support our Holiday Bike Drive by providing two services to Cycle Oregon riders who want to buy them: meticulous detailing of bikes, and also charging of phones and other gadgets at our solar-powered charging trailer, built/developed just for this
occasion. Between the two services, our volunteers helped us earn $22,585 this year.
This year, Executive Director Kasandra Griffin was also out riding and talking about the Cycling Center, on a bike that our Apprentice, Cornelius Jefferson, helped assemble. Cornelius is a student at Helensview (alternative) Secondary School in Portland, who has completed the “Bike Mechanics as STEM Education” class that we offer in his school and the “Mechanic Intensive Training” that we offer in our shop over spring break. He worked for us this summer and his Apprenticeship is continuing during the school year, working around his school schedule. Riding a bike that he helped build gave Kasandra a great opportunity to talk about our STEM program AND also our overall organization!
Happily, Kasandra wasn’t the only cyclist out there on a bike from our shop – we also saw a lovely Burley Tandem out on the road that came from us! If you’re looking for your next ride – for Cycle Oregon or any other purpose – come check out our stock – you never know what treasures you may find!
If you are interested in possibly joining our crew on Cycle Oregon next year as a volunteer… please write to jim.milne@communitycyclingcenter.org to get on the list, and we will check in with you again in the late spring. Volunteers work four days and get to ride – or just relax – for two or three. We would love to have you!
Finally – a big thank you to our friends at Cycle Oregon for nearly 25 years of support and collaboration. We wouldn’t be where we are today without you.