All About You FRIDAY – A Second Chance at Life

That is a picture of the over 1,500 bikes currently sitting in a warehouse at the edge of Corktown in Detroit. Last Saturday, in the span of five hours, nine U-Haul trucks traversed between 11 drop-off locations in Metro Detroit and gathered up 1,382 bikes. Volunteers manned the drop off locations and a team of people at the warehouse unloaded and sorted each of the bikes in preparation for the season ahead.

In a little over 2 months, each of those bikes will be cleaned, prepped and repaired so that it can land in the hands of a kid. For some, it will be their first bike. Some won’t even know how to ride. But all will leave with a smile on their face. Christmas will have come early.

I could tell you countless stories of my time with FB4K Detroit. In fact, I struggled with what to call this blog. I considered How to Get People to Work for Free or What Would You Do if Nobody was Watching.

The first option was inspired by the feeling I got when I walked into the warehouse last Saturday. In fact, it started before that. Early in the morning, I raced to the clinic to help set up the drop-off station at MIHP. My friend Wendy and her husband had eagerly agreed to sit there for five hours and collect bikes. We set up the signs, I gave them t-shirts and raced off to church.

I would not have wanted that job, but they love it. They pull out their lawn chairs and sit and chat with friends and eagerly greet and thank everyone that drops a bike off. They are the perfect “first contact” for anyone that encounters the organization.

A couple hours later, Liz and I headed to the FB4K warehouse. We parked and then looked at each other with smiles on our faces. “Here we go!” I said. “I’m so glad you like doing this with me,” I added.

“You’d do it even if I didn’t come along,” she said matter-of-factly. True.

“But I’d miss you,” I replied.

We walked into the warehouse and were greeted like it was a family reunion. It is. Every person involved in this organization comes eagerly. We await the last Saturday of September every year like it is a holiday. Because it is.

Every time someone yelled, “Truck!” we all walked towards the loading ramp. The U-Haul would back up to the bottom of the ramp. Someone would throw open the roll up door and we would cheer at the mangled pile of bikes that needed to be unloaded. Sometimes there would be 50. Sometimes there would be over 100.

I logged 5.4 miles that day walking back and forth from the trucks to the sorting area. Once the truck was empty, the driver would check in with Laurie, the dispatcher, and get directions on where to go next. She sits at that table and communicates with the drivers and drop-off sites while looking at her expertly formed map.

I would not want that job, but she loves it. Or at least, she does it with a smile on her face.

How does this happen? I mused in between bike unloading. How do you get all of these people to happily come and work for free?

The answer to that is the secret to a running a successful non-profit. Here’s what I’ve learned:

The mission driven focus starts at the top. Everyone on the FB4K board loves riding bikes and/or working on bikes and getting bikes into the hands of kids.
The season is short and productive. We collect bikes the last week of September, work on them until the first week in December and then give them all away by the second weekend in December, just in time for the holidays.
There is a place for everyone and each person is allowed to find their place. “Have you ever fixed a flat tire?” the question pops up if you click on the VOLUNTEER button on the website. If you say no, it says, “Welcome to the cleaners!” I love that. Our lead mechanic doesn’t enjoy collection day. “Too chaotic,” he says. But he motivates and teaches the team of volunteer mechanics better than anyone I know, even motivating them with Taco Tuesday on the evening shift.
Volunteers are valued whether you come once or every week. We have some people who just show up on Collection Day and Giveaway Day. And we have some that show up every week. There are over 700 volunteers that help FB4K get bikes into kids hands. Shifts are never longer than three hours.
If you join the volunteer force, you have joined a family.

It’s a testament to Bob Barnes and the team he has assembled. The board. The mechanics. The warehouse managers. The cleaners. The preppers. He finds the right people and allows them to find their place in the organization. He reminds everyone of the mission and keeps the focus.

How do you get people to work for free? You make it so it doesn’t feel like work.

My second potential blog title, What Would You Do if Nobody Was Watching, was inspired by the second bike I fixed on my first shift this year.

There it was, at the front of the row in the “Clean Bikes” section. It was a well-worn 14-inch bike with a worn out seat, worn out tires and a front wheel that wasn’t even connected. I stared at it for a long second. I hate putting new tires on those little bikes. It’s like wrestling a pig in a small box. Admittedly, I’ve never done that. But it is what I imagine it would be like.

I could just grab the one behind it that looked like it had barely been ridden. Nobody would know and someone would eventually grab that sad excuse of a bicycle.

Aargh! I thought. And I picked it up.

Not only did it need new tires. The handlebar was on backwards, the front brake cable was twisted around the fork, the rear tire had the wrong sized nuts on it, the chain was dry and the front bearings barely spun.

I had a long conversation with that bike as I wrestled with it, scraped off some rust, lubed the chain, overhauled the front hub and replaced parts.

My nails were covered in grease. My knuckles a little scraped. And my muscles a bit sore. But two hours later, I placed that shiny bike with new tires in the Quality Control pile. A smile spread across my face. Some little girl is going to love that bike.

I read something last night entitled “How to Become More Alive”.

It said, in the end, a life is measured by: The love you gave. The courage you showed. The moments you were truly present. The person you became when nobody was watching.

All that is wrapped up in a season of FB4K Detroit. I hope you click that link and join us.