The Community Bicycle Center provided after-school and summer bike programs for over 300 youth. During after-school programs, youth learned bike repair skills and safety inspections, earning over 150 bikes. The center also organized various community outreach events reaching over 1,100 students. Additionally, the center's charity cycling team of 26 members raised over $16,000 for charity through a multi-day bike ride. The center provided various summer cycling adventures, trips, and programs to promote bike safety and life skills.

1. Trips for Kids
Program Report 2013
Community Bicycle Center
11/25/2013
After/Out of School Bike Repair
The Community Bicycle Center’s educational
bike shop opened every weekday afternoon for children to learn life skills through
repairing and maintaining bicycles. Three hundred and eighteen youth worked on their
own bikes, repaired and earned bikes, reconditioned bikes for community outreach
projects, and maintained our instructional bicycle fleet during 3,198 participant days.
Children earned 150 bikes in addition to repairing their own bikes and completing
numerous bike safety inspections. Youth learned life skills including shared shop space
etiquette, observational and problem solving skills, conflict resolution skills, goal
persistence, patience, personal learning styles, and the meaning of service above self.
Participants experienced commitment, learned to advocate for themselves, and developed
relationship and team building skills. As part of our bicycle safety education contract
with the Maine Department of Transportation, the CBC provided 133 free bike helmets.
Additionally, CBC had support from 89 direct service volunteers. Twenty-one
youth earned their mandated community service hours working in the CBC shop and
assisting during bike rides.
Community Outreach Projects
With support from the Biddeford Police Department, Biddeford School
Department, and the Coastal Healthy Communities Coalition the CBC organized a city
wide Walk to School event for students at the Biddeford Primary, Intermediate, and
Middle Schools. This year the John F. Kennedy Kindergarten Center also participated.
Over 1,100 students participated in the event.
Also in 2013, the CBC participated in family fun nights at Biddeford Primary
School, a vehicle fair at the Sweetser School, Biddeford’s annual Bacon Street Festival,
and the Maine Bike Rally. We also presented to the students at the Kennebunk
Consolidated School, and the BLAST afterschool program at Biddeford Intermediate
School.
Additionally, we donated bikes to the Center for Cultural Exchange program for
their foreign exchange students, organized an Eastern Trail ride for Sacopee Valley High
School students and staff, and completed bike and helmet safety checks for the
Kennebunkport Recreation Department.

2. Charity Cycling Team
Our youth/adult
Charity Cycling Team
trained, fundraised, and cycled the 180-mile, three-day Trek Across Maine for the
American Lung Association of the Northeast. Our team members raised $16,098 in
support of the ALA-of the Northeast healthy lung initiatives. Twenty-six team members
completed the Trek eight of whom were youth who learned healthy living habits, group
cycling skills, bike maintenance, and fundraising concepts. Mutually meaningful
youth/adult relationships were developed through the camaraderie of our diverse team.
In 2013, our team completed its fourteenth season of cycling in the Trek Across Maine
and has raised over $231,514 for the American Lung Association of Maine over 14 years.
Cycling Adventures
During the summer kids gathered at the CBC shop three times each week to learn
safe cycling skills on group road, mountain, and tandem bike rides. They explored
Biddeford and surrounding communities with trips to places with fun destinations swimming, ice cream, and mud. Children learned how to shift gears, apply the Rules of
the Road, and safe group cycling habits. During 2012, 54 youth pedaled a combined
8,084 miles. Additionally, a number of older CBC youth earned their tandem (twoperson bike) captains license which allowed CBC rides to go further and faster than past
years.
During the spring and summer riding season the CBC embarked on three
overnight bicycling trips including a trip to Camp Ketcha in Scarborough and two trips to
the Kennebunk Conservation Land Trust (KCLT). Our trip to Camp Ketcha brought
seven youth on a 64 mile roundtrip adventure. While at Camp Ketcha we played disc
golf, hiked around the Scarborough Marsh, and used their low-ropes course for some
team building activities.
In June and August, and in collaboration with Seacoast (New Hampshire) Youth
Services (SYS), the CBC brought 13CBC youth and eight SYS youth on a three-day two-

3. night camping adventure. During the trip youth experienced camping on Vaughn Island,
rowing around Cape Porpoise, and mountain biking in the Smith Preserve of the KCLT.
Girls’ Empowerment Group
During the summer and shoulder seasons, girls embarked on weekly road or
mountain bike rides ranging from five-25 miles making stops at Blandings Park Wildlife
Sanctuary, local swimming holes, and volunteers homes for henna tattooing. Overall, in
2013, 21 girls rode 690miles cumulatively.
Bike Monkeys
Ten youth (six male, four female) completed our signature curriculum-based,
bicycle repair-training program, mentored by 12 dedicated volunteer mentors. The CBC
offered a co-ed program as well as a Girls Only program in 2013. A lead mechanic and
graduated Bike Monkeys mechanic led each session. During each youth’s commitment,
they learn bicycle repair skills, shop maintenance and safety habits, and community service
concepts. Youth that participated during 2013 have already begun to give back to the
CBC through volunteering during open shop hours and our Bike Doctor program.