 "Photo: Melanie Hardy")
Below a paint shop on North Market Street in Wilmington, thousands of used bikes of all shapes and sizes hang from the ceiling of a seemingly typical garage, home to the Urban Bike Project. The UBP opened in March 2006 after a year of brainstorming.
The UBP is a 100-percent volunteer-staffed, nonprofit organization that sells bikes and any bike part imaginable, founder Sarah Green said. Volunteers help teach patrons how to fix their broken bikes and improve their functioning ones and provide them with tools to do so. The goal of the project is to make bikes accessible for people at all income levels and to provide a mode of transportation for all income brackets, she said.
Green wanted to provide resources for people who ride bikes because there are not any other bike shops within the city's limits. UBP's other co-founders, Brian Windle and David Hallberg, first created the idea of the project when they were fixing bikes for free for children in Wilmington.
According to Green, many children would come to Windle's and Hallberg's houses every day and ask them to fix their bikes. It became obvious to Green, Hallberg and Windle that someone needed to step up and create a community organization dedicated to providing used bikes for anyone who needs them, she said.
The UBP provides an eclectic assortment of bikes and bike parts ranging from antique bikes to racing bikes, Green said.
"Some people that are really into bikes come in and say, 'Oh,where's your nice stuff?' " she said. "I mean, we have nice stuff. We have a little bit of everything for everyone."
Freshman Alex Weiler heard about the project from his friend, junior Arthur Wicks, president of the university cycling team. He said he and Wicks went to Wilmington to see UBP for themselves due to their love of biking.
"I have some experience fixing bikes - not much, like WalMart bikes," Weiler said. "But on the Web site it says you don't need experience."
Even though it took only 15 minutes to fix their bikes, he said they ended up staying at the project for three hours talking to volunteers.
Weiler said UBP is a welcoming place because of the laid-back mentality of the volunteers.
"Most places charge you like an arm and a leg for any type of manual labor," he said. "But these guys are doing it for free."
Green said the mood in the garage is typically friendly and lighthearted.
"Don't take them seriously," she said. "We joke a lot here."
Volunteers at the project do not fix bikes but instead teach costumers how to do it themselves. The volunteers' creed is evocative of the old proverb, "Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime."
Weiler said his only complaint is that there are not more shops like UBP.
"I mean, there's nothing else like it," he said.
Weiler said UBP offers antique bike parts but sells them at an affordable price.
"I know the value of it, but they're selling it for like 60 bucks," he said.
UBP accepts volunteers of all ages and levels of experience, Green said, and as it states on its Web site, no bike experience is necessary to volunteer. She estimates UBP has approximately 70 volunteers, all of whom receive an end of the year newsletter that gives updates about the events and fundraisers for the project.
Junior Evan Ross Wilbert visited UBP last Thursday and said he intends to volunteer there in the future.
"It's not a bike thing for me," Wilbert said. "Any manual, mechanical work is relaxing for me."
UBP volunteer Gavin Klahr said the biggest patrons of the shop are residents of Wilmington between the ages of 6 and 18.
"It's like their favorite place," Klahr said. "And they've always got some bike they've broken or acquired through suspicious means."
Green said the youngest age volunteers can teach how to fix a bike is 8. She said she has helped children as young as 6 but that it can be difficult.
"We have the kids 'work off' the payment, but they don't really," Green said. "We really just give it to them."
Many people from the homeless shelter around the corner come into UBP to buy bikes to get to and from work, he said. In the winter, volunteers from UBP bring people from the shelter into the shop to give them bikes and provide them with hot chocolate.
Green, who was born and raised in Wilmington, feels the city has a huge amount of potential.
"I just really want this city to be better and this might be a really, really small part of that, but at least I'm doing something," she said.
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