Sunday Parkways and Hacienda
Last weekend, 4 volunteers joined us to offer free bike tune-ups and flat tire fixes for residents of the Hacienda Community as a part of the NE neighborhood’s Sunday Parkways. We shared the parking lot with folks from the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s (PBOT) Safe Routes to School program who helped lead a group bike ride and walk in both Spanish and English with families from Hacienda. Kids and adults who did not have helmets or bicycles were able to borrow them from PBOT’s bicycle fleet and received helmets from Trauma Nurses Talk Tough.
It was a typical Portland day on Sunday, September 25th with intermittent rain storms and strong winds. We set up at the Ortiz Center at Hacienda and the morning started off a little slowly. But with the help of one enthusiastic young resident, Jasmine, who went door to door seeing if her friends had bikes that needed fixing, we soon had a nice group of smiling faces and bikes of all sizes!
We were able to service 15 bicycles in under 2 hours and we saw many familiar faces of kids who have graduated from our Bike Club programs at Harvey Scott Elementary and Rigler Elementary School. Addel, a former Bike Club student, came in with his bike, knowing exactly what needed to be fixed but he just didn’t have the tools. Upon putting a new tube in his tire, he pumped it up, reattached the brake and rode off. There were parents and children working together to get their bikes fixed and many smiling faces riding away to enjoy the day.
At the end of our day, kids with brand new helmets and tuned-up bicycles joined up with the Safe Routes to School ride leaders to explore the Sunday Parkways route, many for the very first time. We knew we all had a great time, rain and all.