Winter hasn't slowed down the Bellemeade Bike Shop team one bit! In December, the bike shop suffered a break-in and many of our tools were stolen. Our community rallied and came through to replace our valuable tools, and we are so grateful! With this experience, we realized that we needed to make the bike shop more secure so that this wouldn’t happen again. We were faced with an opportunity: a rebuild! With Will's invaluable assistance, we've been making speedy progress. The team has been hard at work putting up walls, building new structures, and getting the shop wired up for electricity. Weatherized and secure, we are on track to reopen the shop by mid-March, we are excited for our grand reopening on May 11th!
But that's not all that's been happening this winter at the bike shop. In an exciting new undertaking, we launched our first travelling Build-a-Bike program in collaboration with NextUp RVA at Henderson Middle School. This innovative initiative spans several weeks, with students learning how to fully deconstruct, repaint, and rebuild a bike of their choosing. Working alongside the talented students at Henderson has been an absolute delight, and we're immensely proud to see them develop their mechanical skills and unleash their creativity.
As we look to the future, we envision the Build-a-Bike program as just the beginning of a series of mechanics and riding programs in partnership with NextUp RVA at Richmond Public Schools. Together, we're committed to fostering a love for cycling and empowering the next generation of riders and mechanics within our community.