Recycled Cycles: The Abandoned Bike Club at Camp Humphreys
- Daniel Melton
- Jul 18, 2024
- 4 min read
How the Abandoned Bike Club Camp Humphreys Got Rolling
The Abandoned Bike Club started because I was riding around Camp Humphreys and saw all the abandoned bikes. A thought came to mind; it would be wonderful if we could collect them, refurbish and repair them, and then to give back to the service members and Camp Humphreys community. There had to be a better use for them, which is how the Abandoned Bike Club was formed.
From Idea to Official Program
Forming our organization was a challenge at first. We had to receive approval to start the program and use a warehouse that was being used just to store abandoned bikes. Humphreys Garrison Commander, Colonel Graves authorized us to start the program. He gave Major Colman the approval for us to use the warehouse and to repair and refurbish them. With the help of Danny Morris and Joe Colson, we put the word out for volunteers. Soon we had 9 volunteers show up that first Saturday ready to work. The word got out and we started getting an average of 10 volunteers when we met to fix these bikes. We meet on the first and third Saturday of the month and if we had 5 or more volunteers who wanted to come out on another Saturday, we’d open the bike warehouse.
Volunteer Power and Growing Momentum
After only 4 weeks of repairing and refurbishing bikes, we had our first bike giveaway in November 2023. Our club gave away 82 bikes to soldiers with a rank of E-6 and below and their family members. Our next giveaway happened in December of 2023. We gave way 32 bikes to RoK soldiers and KATUSA soldiers. In April of 2024, with the help of Chaplain Cho, another 20 bikes were given away to unaccompanied soldiers.
Our largest giveaway to date also happened in April as we gave away 105 bikes to the community. Thanks to our wonderful volunteers, they made this last bike giveaway the best yet. They did so much and just took charge to make everything run so smoothly. U.S. Army Colonel Marcus Franzen helped many soldiers join our volunteer team. With their volunteer efforts helping our organization, Colonel Frazen helped them receive their volunteer awards and their Presidential Award by logging volunteer hours with the Abandoned Bike Club. The Scouts also helped us by taking care of serving all the food for the event. Through support from the PMO traffic division, Major Paul Colman, the DPTMS Vehicle registration office, and the KATUSA volunteers, we are able to take care of all the registering of the bikes when we hold the giveaways for bikes. When people ride off with their new-to-them bike, they are all prepared and legally registered!
Community Bike Giveaways
We will have another bike giveaway in August or around Labor Day. We are going to try to have more bikes to giveaway at the bike giveaway next time. Please be sure to check out our Facebook and email us.
More Than Just Giveaways
Giveaways aren’t the only thing our club does. Our club also is helping the youth of Humphreys as we partner with Scouts to give them a one-day bike maintenance class and also to help them get their merit badge. We can also teach other young people who would like to learn how to care for their bikes. They are welcome to come and learn as long as they have an adult with them at all times.
Future Plans and Goals
In the future, we are hoping to start a program where the Camp Humphreys community may get a bike to use for a day or one week. The idea is that the program would be free to anyone with a valid ID card and will have to sign a responsible statement before they get the bikes to use. As we grow as an organization, we hope fewer bikes will be abandoned at bike racks and instead will be donated to our organization. This will allow us to build more programs to benefit our community.
How to Get Involved
Throughout the next year, the club will be holding some fundraisers. Our hope is that people will come out and support us to raise funds for our program. We are also looking for sponsorship from any sponsors who would like to support the Abandoned Bike Club Humphreys. These giveaways not only allow our community members to save money but it increases access to post services and increases people’s quality of life.
As a registered private organization, we accept donations to allow us to continue this great work. So far, the three founders of the Abandoned Bike Club Camp Humphreys have been paying for everything out of their pockets and with donations. Help us continue this community program with your support!
Follow on Facebook at Bike Club Humphreys
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