Bike Box of the Blue Ridge started in 2017 as the brainchild of Dave Walsh, the event director for the Fall Foliage bike festival. While Walsh has since moved, his vision for a bike kitchen lives on.
Randall Wolf, an Augusta County resident, is the lifeblood of the organization now, working to get used bikes in good condition, and in the hands of the people who need them most.
Since the organization’s founding, it has gotten approximately 700 bikes back in the community. Kids’ bikes, adult bikes, bikes for recreation and bikes for transportation – at little or no cost.
In the past year, the organization has provided bikes to refugees from Afghanistan, people recently released from jail, and now the focus has primarily shifted to people who are homeless or living on the edge.
“I just delivered three more bikes today,” said Wolf. “I would say that probably a third to a half of our bikes are to people that are living right now unsheltered or sofa surfing. There’s a lot of people in need and a bike really empowers them to be able to get to work on time, to have reliable transportation to run errands and just to get around town much easier than if you have to walk.
“In a half-hour, you can bike three miles pretty easily, maybe even a little more,” he said. “So it really expands your ability to get around.”
Bike Box is housed on the second floor of the Boys and Girls Club in Waynesboro – a partnership that goes back about a decade under the name Spokes, a program of the Waynesboro Parks and Recreation Department, Wolf said. The club doesn’t charge the organization rent, and in turn, kids get to learn about bike safety or even earn a bike by working on bikes at the shop.
Wolf says that in a lot of ways, he’s developed a relationship with the unsheltered population – working to provide bikes to those who need them or replace bikes that are sometimes stolen. But even beyond that, when people see his car parked outside, they sometimes pop in for a Gatorade or snack that Wolf keeps stocked at their location.
“One of the bikes I delivered today was actually replacing a bike to a gentleman who was homeless but now has a shared apartment space,” said Wolf. “His bike got stolen. So I delivered another bike to him because he’s working. And he’s got some difficult hours, and he really needs that bike to work and to be a reliable employee.”
He said a lot of the homeless people do return to Bike Box – to come in, to talk, to warm up, hang out, and even help.
“They’re really grateful for a bike and extremely respectful,” Wolf said. “They bring in their friends if they have a friend who could use a bike. The word’s out, and you know that’s really the kind of work that I want to be doing – providing those bikes for transportation.”
Love of cycling
Wolf’s love of cycling dates back to his when he was a teen. He travelled by bike with friends roundtrip from suburban Philadelphia to Nova Scotia. He’s lived in big cities like Baltimore and Toronto where he also commuted to work on his bike.
“At age 13, a friend of mine got a bike and I got a bike. We lived in suburban Philadelphia. And in a very short period of time, we started traveling 10, 15, 20 miles from home, riding 30-40 miles at a time in the country out there,” said Wolf.
The trip to Nova Scotia, in particular, taught him to be self-sufficient with bikes.
“By that point, I had pretty much learned how to do everything on a bike,” he said. “I didn’t really need to go to a bike shop any more to have anything done to it.”
He also worked with an American professional bike pro team – as a photographer, a mechanic, and he even did a bit of racing.
“I’ve ridden over 125,000 miles on my bike in my life, and some years I did as many as 13,000 miles in one year.”
Bike riding, therefore, is part of the fabric that makes up the man.
“I love to be able to share that with other people,” he said. “And do this to give back. Because it’s given me so much, you know?”
A bike equals freedom
He said that he often asks both kids and adults one word to describe riding a bike, and freedom is the number one word, whether they are 8 years old or 80.
“When you give a child a bike, and they start to explore their neighborhood, they’re old enough to just maybe get away from being right with their parents. It takes on a responsibility. It empowers them and makes them be responsible. So, it’s a wonderful tool to prepare people for life.”
How to help
The Bike Box program is funded in part through grants from community organizations. Bike Box also sells refurbished bikes to the community for $75-$350, depending on the bike, to help fund the operation. The bike sales provide funds for the organization to buy parts when needed – things like cables, brake pads, chains, locks, helmets, etc.
As far as what the organization needs most, it is twofold: volunteers and old bikes.
Wolf said Bike Box of the Blue Ridge is basically a one-man operation now. In a perfect world, he would have someone working part-time or full-time to help refurbish bikes but that isn’t possible now. He said he could use more volunteers – and they don’t have to be knowledgeable on repairing bikes.
Old mountain bikes are most in demand, but Wolf said, he’s happy to take in all bikes to get them turned around and back in use.
“Anybody cleaning out their garage that has a bike that has been sitting there for 10 years, 15 years, that they’re not using, never going to use, their child left it there … I’m happy to come and pick that bike up at your garage.”
Because of the limited number of volunteers, Wolf said that he is meeting people by appointment only. Requests may be sent to [email protected]
For more information on Bike Box of the Blue Ridge, visit facebook.com/BikeBoxBlueRidge or bikeboxblueridge.org.
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Crystal Graham
