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BY DYLON CHOW

In print | Published September 25, 2008

Chester Neighborhood Bike Works, a new program launched by Anna Baeth ’09, provides local youth with the opportunity to learn about bike repair at the Chester YWCA.

Volunteers take old donated bicycles and work with youth in the community to teach the mechanical skills needed to repair bicycles.

After the participants learn bicycle safety and bike repair, they receive their own bicycles at the end of the training period.

Baeth received a Lang Center Summer Social Action Award (S2A2) to participate in an unpaid internship with a non-profit organization.

She chose Neighborhood Bike Works (NBW), an organization in Philadelphia that works with urban youth through cycling. Motivated by the experience, she decided to start a program in Chester, similar to the one currently operating in Philadelphia. The program, Chester Neighborhood Bike Works, is now a branch of NBW.

Baeth described her project as a “non-profit bike shop.” Old bicycles are donated from various places in the community, including Swarthmore. Because the program is still in an early phase of development, Baeth and a team of mechanics and volunteers are working with adult participants for the time being.

However, Baeth said she hopes to gradually include younger participants between the ages of 10 and sixteen. After they have spent a minimum of 60 hours working on the bicycles, each one will receive a water bottle, a bike lock, a helmet and the bicycle that he or she repaired.

Baeth said she is still looking for ways to expand the program’s reach.

With the help of various organizations in the community, including the Bicycle Coalition of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley Bicycling Club, she hopes to set up, later in the semester, an earn-a-bike program for adults as well as a series of classes on bicycle safety.

Baeth said that she is also exploring the possibility of sponsoring bike rides around Chester neighborhoods for families, in order to promote cycling as both an inexpensive means of transportation and a recreational activity.

Planned monthly events include a bike sale, a bike tour of Chester, and a Secret Santa program in which bikes will be distributed to families who cannot afford them.

Debra Kardon-Brown, the Lang Center’s assistant director for student programs, said that she is optimistic about Chester Bike Works, noting that many residents have been showing up at the YWCA to express their interest in the program.

In the July 30th issue of “Chester Spirit,” Chester’s only newspaper, news of the build-a-bike program made the front cover.

According to Kardon-Brown, Baeth possesses the “package of positive intent, the careful acquisition of skills, and the application of best practice in community involvement not only to start a project but to ensure its sustainability, so that the community can rely on its existence.” Although Baeth is still hoping to expand the program, the process will require time and additional volunteers.

“We’re getting everything organized at this point,” she said. Baeth said she is looking for volunteers and trained mechanics throughout the community and on campus. The program is open to all members of the Swarthmore community and, according to Baeth, “No experience is necessary.”
“We just want people who are interested and we can always use an extra set of hands to help,” she said.

Peter Schmidt, chair of the English Literature department and a strong advocate of Chester Neighborhood Bike Works, said the program is prepared to train “folks who don’t know a sprocket from a spoke.”

Chester Neighborhood Bike Works is located at the YWCA in Chester. It is open on Monday and Wednesday nights from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. and on Sunday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Those interested in volunteering should contact Anna Baeth.

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