“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.

Today I introduce you to a porch that will make you swoon and one of my favorite people in the whole world, Crystal. She is my southern garden and homemaking mentor. She and her husband Teague have a yard that is the envy of the entire neighborhood. And I just adore her. If this porch, and the wonderful nature of Crystal and Teague, don’t make you want to participate in the porch crawl, I don’t know what will! Prepare to fall in love.

Tell us about your porch and what you love about it: “For Teague and I, the porch and garden is where our home connects to the community and our neighbors.   We’re constantly in the front area so we interact with everyone walking on the sidewalk or riding bikes. When we bought the house six years ago, the entire front was obscured by bushes and vines. It was dark and uninviting and the paint on the house was drab and peeling. It’s taken a lot of work, but now the porch is bright and cheerful and the garden is an ever changing kaleidoscope of pinks, yellows and purples.”


What’s your favorite feature of the Porch? “The vintage metal furniture. All three pieces were found separately. I negotiated with a garbage collector in Villa Rica for the glider. We stripped, scraped and hand painted each one and I still can’t believe how well it all turned out.  In fact … with the exception of the swing and one chair everything on the porch is refinished or repurposed. It’s the one room of our 100 year old house that I consider (almost) finished.”

Why are you participating in the Porch Crawl?  “I promised Becky! Seriously though … Everyone remembers his or her first bike and the freedom that went along with it. The Beltline Bike Shop taps into that memory, opening a door between kids, teens, adults and seniors and helping us to find that ever elusive common ground. And when we work on community projects together … such as picking up litter or gardening in the park those connections get even stronger so that we are all truly neighbors.  Through the efforts of Tim, Becky and all the amazing volunteers and supporters of the shop, our little neighborhood of Adair Park is becoming an extraordinary place.”


Crystal was one of my first friends in the neighborhood, and one of the first friends of the bike shop. She and Teague are such an important part of the shop in that their presence in our neighborhood truly matters. It is common to see kids stopping in their front yard to say hello, look at Crystal’s flowers, or occasionally taste a fresh-picked veggie. They employ and encourage kids regularly, whether it’s helping with yard work, home renovation or walking their dog Scout, whom all the kids know. What does all that mean? Crystal and Teague are neighbors, in the truest essence of the word. They are the people that make our neighborhood strong and a great place for kids to grow up in.
I hope you come participate in the Porch Crawl and meet these wonderful friends of mine. They will be yours too! Reserve your tickets today, and then check out a few more photos that will make you swoon.
Handpainted vintage furniture

Beautiful ferns

Homemade cocktails are always closeby.

Scout the dog.

Second in our series on the hosts of the Beltline Bike Shop Porch Crawl is my brother-in-law Jeff. I like to joke that Jeff is our neighborhood’s most eligible bachelor, mainly because he is. I talked him into hosting the Porch Crawl because his home is huge and gorgeous and almost done. He’s also got a massive backyard (2/3′s of an acre with a 1500 square foot garden. It gets prettier every day. He agreed to host (if only because I agreed to send women to stage and cook and do everything! Alas, you will love seeing his home. (more…)