Written by Joel on March 22, 2019/Park Tool News

Park Tool Announces Winners of 4th Annual Community Tool Grants

Community Grant2019

Park Tool is proud to announce the winners of their 2019 Community Tool Grants. This is the fourth year the company has awarded ten non-profits with bicycle tools and repair stands to help them continue to make a difference in their community. This year, many well deserving non-profits applied for the grants from all corners of the world. Each of the ten grant recipients will receive over $1,400 in Park Tool products including:

  • 1 — Park Tool PK-3 Professional Mechanic Tool Kit
  • 2 — Park Tool PCS-10.2 Portable Repair Stands
  • 5 — Park Tool SA-1 Shop Aprons

In addition, the first-ever President’s Choice award was granted to Norte Youth Cycling of Traverse City, MI, providing them with an additional $1,000 to spend on more tools and repair equipment.

“The reason I chose Norte Youth Cycling is they are very integrated into their city — they’ve got education programs, summer camps, they’ve got teaching kids how to wrench on bikes, they have a mountain bike team. But it’s not only about kids, they’re about their whole community of Traverse City, MI, and it was very impressive,” said Eric Hawkins, Park Tool’s president/owner and chief mechanic.

Norte youth cycling Park Tool grant winner working on a bike

The 2019 Park Tool Community Tool Grant Winners are:

Bike Friendly South Dallas — Dallas, TX: Bike Friendly South Dallas is a group of bicycling enthusiasts that provide bicycle maintenance, re-furbished bicycles, cycling safety & education to the underserved neighborhoods of South Dallas using a series of Pop-Up Bike shops, community events and a local community We-Cycle bike shop.

Pedal Power MN — Minneapolis, MN: Pedal Power MN is a school-based cycling organization growing out of the Minneapolis Public Schools. We teach all 4th graders how to ride a bike. Currently about 35% of incoming 4th graders cannot ride a bike at all. After children learn to ride a bike, we switch our programming to riding to destinations all over the city of Minneapolis. We provide the expertise and training for Minneapolis teachers to lead school-based bicycling programs.

NACA / Cycles of Life — Albuquerque, NM: The Native American Community Academy (NACA) is an innovative, community-led charter school in Albuquerque, New Mexico serving grades 6–12 dedicated to providing rigorous, culturally integrated education for Native American youth. Cycles of Life is a primary partner in this work, and recently secured 45 new bikes for NACA students. Cycles of Life creates a space that supports, encourages, and strengthens youth to realize their innate potential as compassionate leaders for the 21st century through Bicycling, Gardening, and Art.

Norte Youth Cycling — Traverse City, MI: Norte is a youth-focused bike/walk advocacy nonprofit organization based in Traverse City serving northwestern lower Michigan. Norte was originally created to provide a solution to the problem of long car lines wrapping around neighborhood schools through bicycling to school but quickly filled the bicycle education void in the region and has been adding more to its repertoire ever since.

Gate City Bike Co-Op — Nashua, NH: Gate City Bike Co-op collects unwanted bicycles, repairs them, and gives them away to low income residents of the greater Nashua, NH area. 100% volunteer run and largely self-funded, GCBC began operations in 2017 with the goal of providing reliable, year-round transportation to low income residents in the greater Nashua area. They have approximately 25 regular volunteers.

Insersol — Hellemmes, France: With a staff of 13 workers and 30 volunteers, Inersol is an organization that serves people in its area that are dealing with social and economic issues. With projects directed to the different needs of the population, including a social grocery, cultural community center, gardening, and their new project is to develop a bike workshop to help those same people repair their bicycles.

Pathways To Graduation — Brooklyn, NY: The Bike Repair and Mechanics (BRAM) Program is designed as an after-school CTE (Career technical Education) geared toward skill-building and workforce development. The program serves students who are overage (17+) and under-credited pursuing a High School Equivalency (HSE) diploma. The students are either seeking a new chance after an interrupted education or are recent immigrants to the U.S.

The Brainerd Baxter Youth Center — Brainerd, MN: The Brainerd-Baxter Youth Center serves at risk and homeless transitional age youth (14–22). The programs and projects work within the culture of marginalized youth and provide a variety of opportunities to develop social and emotional skills and in doing so learn workplace protocols to help them in their future paths towards autonomy. These youth are the future of the rural MN community and their best future possible is the goal.

Recyke y’bike — Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Recyke y’bike is an organization that has 4 main goals: To develop the skills and improve the quality of life of people experiencing social or economic disadvantages in the North East of England. To improve the health of the public by promoting cycling and making it affordable. To advance the education of all ages of the public in the safe use, re-use and maintenance of bicycles. The protection and preservation of the environment for the public benefit by saving bicycles from landfill and promoting bicycle re-use and recycling.

Long Island Streets — Long Beach, NY: With a staff of 4 unpaid volunteers, working out of laptops, at school / church / community center facilities, Long Island Streets is non-profit organization advocating for safe streets for people with a focus on vulnerable road users through education, legislation and community empowerment. Their future education and safety will focus on empowering people in more common-sense ways like to not depend on someone else to fix a flat, adjusting seats & brakes and being able to do basic maintenance and mechanical repairs.