Traditional sports like football and baseball aren’t the best outlet for all schoolchildren. But where playing ball fails, cycling can prevail, according to the nonprofit Silver Stallion Bicycle & Coffee in Gallup, New Mexico.
For the past three years, the nonprofit has worked with Durango bicycle specialists to conduct a bike drive for Navajo Nation children every October in an event called “Share the Love Cycle” for Spoketober, said Shaun Price, spokesman for the Silver Stallion.
This year, Silver Stallion workers and volunteers upcycled 33 bikes and collected 10 frames and 50 bicycle wheels.
Volunteers from a variety of organizations turned out, including Visit Durango, Mountain Time Productions and bike shops such as 2nd Ave Sports, Pedal The Peaks, Pedal Durango, Durango Cyclery and Mountain Bike Specialists.
Volunteers posted up at Buckley Park on Oct. 11 and Oct. 12 and accepted bikes and bike parts. The bikes were refurbished to be donated to Gallup area schoolchildren, Price said.
“A lot of kids that participate in our program come from less than ideal living situations,” he said. “... Kids that don't gravitate to (other) sports tend to gravitate more to cycling.”
Every semester, the Silver Stallion work with one or two of the eight schools in Gallup-McKinley County Schools school district, which lies in checkerboarded reservation lands, to distribute bikes to kids in its afterschool program, he said.
He said the Silver Stallion work with Durango volunteers and mechanics from local bike shops such as 2nd Ave Sports, which donated about $1,000 worth of parts and accessories this year.
Five professional bike mechanics donated about 16 hours of their time to refurbish the collected bikes, he said.
“We get as many of the bikes refurbished and rolling that we can while we're up there (in Durango) with supplies from the shops and support from the shops,” he said. “Whatever we aren't able to get to when we are at this event, we bring back down to Gallup, and then we'll finish with bikes (and) distribute them.”
This year’s “Share the Love Cycle” didn’t generate quite as many bicycle donations as previous years, Price said, but volunteers put their heart into it nonetheless.
In addition to “Share the Love Cycle,” Silver Stallion Bicycle & Coffee offers free bike repairs to kids. Sometimes, kids bring in bikes that are beyond repair. In those cases, the Silver Stallion will exchange the busted bikes for donated or refurbished bikes from various events. The busted bikes will be scrapped for parts that will be used in refurbishing other bikes.
“Bikes that were too far gone, a lot of times there's components or parts that are ready to roll,” he said. “... We'll pull the parts off of that bike and it'll go into our free bike repair library, which is a big inventory.”
cburney@durangoherald.com
