Dear World,
This July was chock full of volunteers from all over the south and possibly the entire nation. Tom Bilderback, a long time friend of RUBARB, coordinated several volunteer groups that came to the shop ready to help! One group even bought a bunch of tools, patches and kits for the shop to have extras.They did everything from stripping bikes, yard work, accounting, building improvements and working with people fixing their bikes.
Kate, from the St Bernard Project’s construction team, volunteered her time and expertise to repairing our electrical lines. So much good help throughout the summer! Unfortunately, throughout the summer at RUBARB we experienced several break-ins in which tools and cash were taken from the shop. However with all the wonderful help from our neighbors and from the volunteer groups the shop has been able to rebound well.
It helped that we had two really nice bikes donated in July as well, a bianchi & a vitus. Super slick bikes! We were able to sell each for several hundred dollars and that helps to balance our books at the end of the day!
We’ve also began the conversation about re-organizing the shop. Its not clear exactly what that means yet because we are honoring a collaborative decision making process and thus we are taking our time in thinking this through. It could mean anything from changing the entry door to extending the desk to adding an entry gate. When we’ve worked out the details we’re all going to be super happy and RUBARB is going to be so much better for it!
