As many of you have seen over the past few years, the bike shop is growing and we have now had hundreds of kids come through our doors. Many of you have watched our shop grow from our front porch to approaching out 3rd year in our building. We currently have 70 active kids at the shop and are in the process of hiring our second part-time youth from our neighborhood. The demand on the shop has increased greatly and we think we will have around 1500 visits this year. We have truly become a part of this community in so many different ways. This much traffic, as well as our expansion efforts, has created a lot of wear and tear on tools and increased the need of more bikes and supplies to keep hundreds of bikes in safe, working order. So for these reasons we are extremely excited about being a part of GiFTgive. 

So what Is GiFTgive anyway?

GiFTgive is a very powerful wish list that is fully integrated into Amazon.com. From our GiFTgive page, you can quickly meet the needs of the shop and begin making donations. 

When you choose to give to one of our needs, you will receive a prompt gift receipt. You can make micro donations (partial), and engage your friends to join you in your funding efforts. Each funded need ships automatically and another confirmation is sent to all participating donors. 

Learn more or make a gift today at: http://www.gift-give.com/beltlinebikeshop

“Answer Atlanta is excited to announce the selection of Beltline Bike Shop as the 2013 Beneficiary. View full article.   The Bike Shop is a unique and truly inspiring organization that aims to teach kids the value of hard work, goal setting and respect by rewarding community service and building positive relationships with adult role models.  And it all starts with a bike…”

Because of the great folks at Answer Atlanta we will be able to develop and outfit a mobile bike shop this year. The shop will be built in a 6′x12′ V Nose enclosed trailer and will use professional equipment  in an effort  to reach out to more neighborhoods by building relationships with friends and families of kids who regularly come to work in our bike shop.  We have kids that come from as far as 2 miles away to work on bikes and this limits our ability to reach out to more kids and give them the same opportunities as their older brothers and sisters. The mobile shop will change all that. We will be able to triple our current outreach efforts. This will mean more bikes and other resources so get ready, it’s gonna be a great and impactful year.

At this time we will be pulling the trailer with my Toyota pick up with 190,000 miles on it.  The truck will get us by for a while however it isn’t a long term option just an affordable one. We believe that God will provide what we need when we need it and have seen this all along our journey thus far.  If you happen to know of anyone that would like to help us out with a better solution we are open to something better and longer lasting to pull the first Beltline Bike mobile shop with.

We want to say how thankful we are to the people at Answer Atlanta and other folks along the way that have partnered and believed in us. It has been amazing to watch the bike shop grow as much as it has in a few short years from a vision in our drive way to an operational bike shop impacting the lives of so many youth.

It’s people like you partnering with us that make it possible.

Thank you.

Tim and Becky

The Beltline Bike Shop comes to a skidding halt without your generous financial contributions. Without support, we couldn’t open the shop during the week, we couldn’t buy parts or fix bikes, and we simply couldn’t devote the time to run this endeavor properly because of financial constraints. Therefore, we are deeply grateful for our partners – we couldn’t do it without you. The Beltline Bike Shop is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. All donations are tax-deductible and come directly to the bike shop through our parent organization FCS Urban Ministries, a collective of Atlanta non-profits.

To understand the various expenses of the bike shop, take a look at where your money can go:

Our End of the Year Project: STOCK THE SHOP
Please consider helping us make 2013 the most impactful year to date. Our little shop has grown from an idea sparked by a need to a program with a $50,000 annual budget

and thousands of bikes being repaired. As 2012 comes to a close, we’re looking for a strong start to 2013. Will you consider helping us meet the goal of raising $20,000 to “Stock The Shop” for next year? Stocking the Shop will ensure kids are able to come to a safe place where they can learn how to repair bikes while they earn one for themselves as well as gaining some independence and dignity.

Each bike has an expense of around $25 to be saftely repaired and inspected before it leaves the shop.
Here is what your gift of any amount will fund:

•   $8,000 Rent for 12 months
•   $ 5,000 Tool Maintenance, Replacement and Acquisition
•   $5,000 Program, Repairs, Training, Tubes, Tires, Patch Kits, Brake Cables, BikeLocks
• 2,000 Technology to automate our application process & bike tracking system.

Stocking the Shop will help us reach out to more kids in the community to strengthen and build long lasting relationships. Please give in any amount you want all donations help us reach out and support kids in the community. Please consider joining us as we stock the shop.

If you’re really interested in getting involved, drop us a note! Let’s grab coffee and talk about partnering together to further our mission and spread the word.

We are proud to announce that we have been able to hire a Deante through a grant provided by the Petters Foundation. The grant is providing a young man from our neighborhood a part time job and will help to relieve the demand on Tim at the shop. On any given day at the shop, there can be up to 25 kids seeking his attention and assistance. This blessing will ensure that kids will get more time and attention in the shop as well as outside the shop in their community. This blessing couldn’t have come at a better time as we have had an influx of kids from 5 additional neighborhoods. This influx has created a greater demand on Tim and we have had to develop new strategies to ensure he is able to get out and meet with and develop relationships with as many families as possible.

One of our core values at the shop is to help others if your able. This past week a few of our kids stopped by to repair their bikes and they had the opportunity to help out some other kids. Our first rule when kids come through the door is to take care of your own bike first then, if you’re able, help someone else. After they finished repairing their bikes there were no kids that needed help so these two began doing repairs on some small bikes that will go to foster kids. We have a local recycling center down the road from us that saves the bikes that people bring to scrap, our kids recondition them while earning points that go towards a bike or accessories for their bike. After the bikes are repaired and inspected we return the bikes to the recycler so they can donate them to the foster care organization.

Feds confiscate 300 guns in undercover bust

Dozens of criminals were also arrested in the bust

By Jodie Fleischer

ATLANTA —

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/feds-confiscate-300-guns-undercover-bust/nPgTN/

The shop is an ever-changing sea of faces. This summer, we again have kids coming from surrounding communities–up to a mile away–to earn bikes. Bikes help kids gain mobility and learn useful mechanical skills, but most importantly, we love investing in these youth, getting to know them, and connect them with others in the community. Here are a few things happening right now in the life of the shop: Over the past two months, we have had a few young men step up and begin to lead and recruit new kids from surrounding neighborhoods to come and earn bikes at the shop. Not only are they becoming shop leaders, modeling hard work and good behavior, and connecting with our volunteers as they learn bike repair skills, but they’re developing pride in their talents.

We’re passionate about great education in the lives of our kids. This year, we’re helping a friend get her son to and from a great charter school every day (he’s already back to school), get his homework done nightly, and find work on the weekends. We’re watching this fifth grader work hard and learn how to function and thrive in a disciplined setting. In this past year at Kipp Strive, he’s already improved two grade levels in reading. We look forward to the day when all of Adair Park’s kids will be in quality charter schools.

Why do these things matter? We love talking about the great things happening at the shop, but the reason they are so great is because southwest Atlanta is still a place where 10-year-olds witness shootings, young children lose their dads to homicide, and crime is literally in their backyards. The streets are constantly luring them to a life of  crime, violence and laziness, and the best defense against that is positive influences, right here in their neighborhood.

Gun Shots are not something you ever get used to, but this summer there have been so many I am starting not react the way I should, for my own safety. Gun shots have been more frequent this year in our community than in the previous four. I have talked to mothers that have their children sleeping on the floor because they are worried about stray bullets. In May a, 15 year old young man we know was shot in the leg point blank by a 22 year old man. A 10 year old boy that comes to the bike shop witnessed the shooting and said the man had pointed the gun at him first before shooting the other kid. Last Friday, I was at the bike shop repairing a few bikes when 3-4 guys pulled up in a car came down in front of my shop  and started firing at someone or something down the street. Even though I knew what had just taken place I ran to the door to see if I could identify the shooter. He was gone. They hopped back into the sedan and took off. I came outside to see what they were shooting at but found nothing.

Today I was at the West End Mall with a kid I take to and pick up from school when 4-5 shots rang out not far from my truck. I saw a car speed away from the scene in my rear view mirror, and resisted the urge to make the chase since the student was in the car.

This is our community. These are reminders of why we invest in kids, why we connect neighbors, why we make this our home. The solutions to these societal issues that we see so often are people like you and I, investing, being present, and playing a part in preventing another generation from growing into one that resorts to gun violence as solutions to problems.

You never know where your bikes will come from. Thanks to a student I knew in a youth group years ago, we got a call from Berry College asking us if we were

interested in the bikes the students had left on campus the previous year, we gladly accepted the offer, and after two trips to Rome and the help of a neighbor, we had received 60 bikes.

No sooner did we get them back to the shop and the kids were tearing into them. Some will get fixed up and earned while others will stock our parts buckets. We are grateful for the donation and always get excited about all the opportunities that your old bikes give our kids.

We are thrilled to announce the date of our second annual Porch Crawl Fundraiser!

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