It’s been 4 and a bit months since we opened and I can’t quite believe everything that’s happened. We didn’t just build a bike hub, we built a community and a wonderful, chaotic and supportive community.
I was updating some documents this week, and since September we’ve grown from 20 to 60 volunteers, we’ve helped get over 100 bikes to people in our community and given over 40 bikes to children. We’ve swept, sluiced and painted more than I ever imagined, there’s been at least 4 floods we’ve mopped up!
We’ve just started supporting Duke of Edingburgh students, and I think our DofE dads quite like coming along with their kids 🙂 and this Monday we’re trialing a work experience placement with Reading College.
I expected January to be a quiet month, but we’ve already exceeded forecasts (£5k) by £3000. Jamie and I have both left our other jobs to pursue this full time, we’re putting everything we can into the hub over the next few months to see if we can make this viable.
We unintionally opened a skatepark, we’ve had our walls covered by some amazing graffiti, we have an art wall and refurbished guitars. Late Skates has made our basement into an actual destination people come to and we have resident artists. We held a repair cafe, and are constantly seranaded by Pete’s guitars.
But what I realised it’s not just about what we offer, it’s about the space we’re building. A home for our smaller wheeled friends in winter, a wall for local artists to try and share their art, a place for people who need a space to just come and be with friends.
My son has a community of people who will play with him, he was spotted at the Christmas party trailing an adult sitting on skateboard behind a small bike, he also convinced people to play rugby with a stuffed toy for at least two hours. The graf guys helped him learn his letters by teaching him to tag, the skateboarders will race him across the basement, the skaters strap him into skates and hold his hand. At his birthday party our resident musician offered to entertain the entire party with a music episode (it was epic). We talk about a village being needed to raise a child, the hub has become his (and my) village.
We’re on a peppercorn rent, so we’re not sure what the future holds, what we are sure about is that we want to do it together.
