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Bikes For Kids Wisconsin with Director Kristie GoForth · Ask The Experts

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  Speaker 1: Eight thirty eight thirteen ten WIBA Madison in the morning.
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  Speaker 1: Not maybe the perfect data ride bike, but I guess
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  Speaker 1: there's never a horrible data ride bicycle. And joining us
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  Speaker 1: this morning in studio is Christy Gofirth with the Bikes
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  Speaker 1: for Kids program, the executive director at Bikes for Kids. Christy,
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  Speaker 1: thanks for joining us this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me.
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  Speaker 3: Sean.
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  Speaker 2: I'm really excited to be here.
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  Speaker 1: It is exciting to have you along and you and
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  Speaker 1: I had a chance last week to talk a little
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  Speaker 1: bit about what you guys are doing for the kiddos
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  Speaker 1: here in town, and it's really it's an amazing program
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  Speaker 1: you have. Let's talk a little bit about an overview
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  Speaker 1: of Bikes for Kids and what exactly it is that
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  Speaker 1: you guys are able to do.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, we are the largest bike center in the
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  Speaker 2: state of Wisconsin. We've got a twelve thousand square foot
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  Speaker 2: bike center on the south side of Madison. And what
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  Speaker 2: we're doing is we're trying to make sure that everybody
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  Speaker 2: has an opportunity to access bicycles, not just the people
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  Speaker 2: who are fortunate enough to afford them. Bikes are really expensive,
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  Speaker 2: so we distribute bicycles to other nonprofits, public schools, and
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  Speaker 2: municipalities and tribes throughout the state. We've now distributed fourteen thousand,
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  Speaker 2: one hundred and thirty five bicycles.
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  Speaker 3: Wow, congratulations.
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  Speaker 2: So it's an amazing number because like, if you've ever
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  Speaker 2: been on a group bike ride and two hundred people,
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  Speaker 2: you know, it's like an ocean of bikes. And so
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  Speaker 2: now imagine fourteen thousands. It's pretty incredible.
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  Speaker 3: That is amazing.
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  Speaker 1: And I've got to ask you too, I think for
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  Speaker 1: a lot of folks, you know, that's like our first
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  Speaker 1: taste of freedom when we're kiddos. We get that bike
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  Speaker 1: and you can finally go like go like down the
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  Speaker 1: road and those type of things. And does it help
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  Speaker 1: being here in Madison with bringing in those bikes and
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  Speaker 1: other things. Oh?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely. We have a lot of bikes in this community,
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  Speaker 2: and so all of our bikes are donated to us,
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  Speaker 2: so we don't buy any bicycles. And so I've estimated
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  Speaker 2: I've done some loose calculations. I think there's probably about
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  Speaker 2: three million bikes circulating in Dane County because we always
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  Speaker 2: every year when we're we're just stepping into our bike
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  Speaker 2: collections season, we do take donated bikes year round, but
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  Speaker 2: in the fall is when people are thinking about their
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  Speaker 2: garage space and you know, tucking away, getting their shovels
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  Speaker 2: out and getting their cars in the garage. So it's
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  Speaker 2: a great time for us to collect bicycles, but we
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  Speaker 2: never see it slow down. It's incredible. Yeah, So the
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  Speaker 2: culture here is huge for us, and we also have
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  Speaker 2: a great transportation infrastructure for bike commuters and anyone who
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  Speaker 2: wants to bike recreationally.
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  Speaker 3: And I want to ask you too.
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  Speaker 1: I know you've got a big event, a big breakdown
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  Speaker 1: event coming and of course I know a lot of
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  Speaker 1: folks here that listened to thirteen ten WIBA. Love, love
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  Speaker 1: the opportunity to help, and love the opportunity to donate.
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  Speaker 1: Your website Bikes four Kids Wi dot org. That's bikes
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  Speaker 1: the word four kids Wi dot org. You can learn
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  Speaker 1: about everything we're talking with Christy about this morning online.
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  Speaker 1: Let's talk about that big breakdown coming up Saturday.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Saturday, and I oh boy. I let's hope the
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  Speaker 2: weather's great.
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  Speaker 3: We're hoping to be outside.
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  Speaker 2: It's looking like it might be seventy and cloudy, which
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  Speaker 2: would be perfect. The big breakdown is from noon to
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  Speaker 2: three at our Bike Center and it is going to
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  Speaker 2: be Dane County's largest hands on recycling event where we're
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  Speaker 2: hoping to tear apart maybe one hundred bikes.
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  Speaker 3: We'll see.
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  Speaker 2: This kind of work is really physical, it's really hard.
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  Speaker 2: We're working with rusty parts and you know, think of
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  Speaker 2: it as a bicycle rage room. How about that you
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  Speaker 2: want to let off a little steam, come and join us,
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  Speaker 2: and that's Saturday from noon to three. We do ask
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  Speaker 2: that you sign up on the website just so we
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  Speaker 2: know if you're coming.
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  Speaker 3: And you're right, cor is that price cooer lane.
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  Speaker 2: I speak French, so i'd say koya, But you know.
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  Speaker 3: Right knob Hill, that area.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly right, kind of off Rimrock and between grim Rock
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  Speaker 2: and John Dolan.
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  Speaker 3: By Madison Teachers Inc. Yeah, big hill there, I was
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  Speaker 3: calling them Outain.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, So folks can of course go online and
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  Speaker 1: register for that event. Go to Bikes for Bikes for
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  Speaker 1: Kids wy dot org. So with those bikes and let's
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  Speaker 1: let's I kind of got ahead of myself there, those bikes,
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  Speaker 1: and you mentioned folks cleaning out the sheds and garages
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  Speaker 1: and you know, the kiddos have gone off to college
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  Speaker 1: or maybe they're still growing and you've got one that
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  Speaker 1: they've outgrown.
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  Speaker 3: What can people do with those? How can they get
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  Speaker 3: them to you?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So just to note, despite our name, we do
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  Speaker 2: give bikes to all people. It's just most of our grants.
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  Speaker 2: We about thirty six percent of our fundraising each year
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  Speaker 2: is grants and those are often youth developments. But yeah,
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  Speaker 2: you can bring in your bikes. We do love gently
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  Speaker 2: used So one of the things, one of the reasons
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  Speaker 2: people donate bikes is because they're broken and they're costly
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  Speaker 2: to repair. So most of our bikes require about one
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  Speaker 2: hundred and fifty dollars light overhaul. So if you do
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  Speaker 2: have a bike that's pretty pretty broken, if you can
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  Speaker 2: contribute a little bit of funds with that, oh that's huge.
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  Speaker 2: That starts us on the journey of getting that bike
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  Speaker 2: to live on for years and years. But you can
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  Speaker 2: bring your bikes to us so at three five four
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  Speaker 2: koy Yar Lane and you can see the hours on
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  Speaker 2: our website. If they're broken, you can also drop them
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  Speaker 2: off outside of ours because people aren't usually stealing the
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  Speaker 2: broken bikes, so you'll see a little mountain of broken
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  Speaker 2: bikes that we're going to work on on Saturday outside
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  Speaker 2: the door. That's kind of our signage.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, you know you're in the right place.
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  Speaker 1: Yes. Talking this morning with Christy Goforth. She is the
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  Speaker 1: executive director of Bikes for Kids Again. You can learn
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  Speaker 1: more online Bikes for Kids wi dot org. That's Bikes
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  Speaker 1: the word for Kids Wi dot org. All this information
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  Speaker 1: available to you right up there. You mentioned to you
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  Speaker 1: and you and I were speaking, you said, you've got
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  Speaker 1: a team of really good mechanics and they're the the
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  Speaker 1: bike breakdowns big but also putting them together and making
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  Speaker 1: sure that they're all functional and safe. That's a big responsibility.
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  Speaker 1: You've got some a good team bind you don't.
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  Speaker 2: You absolutely I do. And we're a staff of three.
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  Speaker 2: We're this small but mighty organization. We've served two hundred
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  Speaker 2: and fifty six organizations in the state of Wisconsin so far.
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, my mechanics, you know, these are the skilled trades,
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  Speaker 2: and people don't think bike mechanics being in the trades.
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  Speaker 2: In Madison, we've got nineteen bike shops, so it is
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  Speaker 2: not easy to come by these guys, and so yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I treat them really well. We eat lots of donuts,
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  Speaker 2: bring them smoothies now and again. As much as I
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  Speaker 2: can so, but yeah, we have to make sure. You know,
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  Speaker 2: bikes are vehicles in the state of Wisconsin, and they
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  Speaker 2: have to be safe and reliable and efficient to ride.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, all of our bikes are really they're pretty
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  Speaker 2: much we call shop quality. So you'll see bike brands
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  Speaker 2: you recognize, right so Track Canada, Specialized, Giant and you know,
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  Speaker 2: I want to mention if I didn't mention already. We
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  Speaker 2: do sell used bikes to the public and we do
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  Speaker 2: repairs for the public. So you're really going to find
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  Speaker 2: some of the best pricing in the city because when
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  Speaker 2: you buy a bike with us, number one, it's been donated.
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  Speaker 2: We've put in, we invested the time and parts to
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  Speaker 2: get them up to up and running. But if it's
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  Speaker 2: usually kind of the higher end bikes that we sell,
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  Speaker 2: because if you buy a bike from us, you could
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  Speaker 2: be buying a bike for three or four people, depending
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  Speaker 2: on that price point, and which is amazing. And that's
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  Speaker 2: why people donate the bike is they want to see
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  Speaker 2: it go for a good cause.
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  Speaker 1: It's really it's the more I've learned about it, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: really a win win for everybody. It's a great opportunity
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  Speaker 1: for folks, you know, you can get some space in
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  Speaker 1: your garage. You know that your bike's then going to
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  Speaker 1: a good cause. If you're buying a bike, not only
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  Speaker 1: are you getting a great deal and a great bike,
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  Speaker 1: but you're also at the same time helping. It's this
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  Speaker 1: big circle that just seems to seems to be a
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  Speaker 1: great engine to benefit folks. Oh.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, thanks for saying that.
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  Speaker 1: The other thing too, I want to ask about, as
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  Speaker 1: far as you know, maybe folks are not necessarily mechanically
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  Speaker 1: skilled or maybe not have the opportunity to get in
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  Speaker 1: for the breakdown monetary donations and other things as well.
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  Speaker 1: Folks can definitely do that also, can't they.
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  Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, that's a huge I'll say, we're a really
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  Speaker 2: small budget operation. Two hundred and thirty five thousand dollars.
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  Speaker 2: I know. So it tells you like and it's so
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  Speaker 2: funny because we have no problem getting bike donations because
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  Speaker 2: it's very hard to dispose of a bicycle, especially if
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  Speaker 2: it's broken. Yeah, you're not going to sell that on
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  Speaker 2: marks players. What are you going to do with it?
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  Speaker 2: Are you going to tear the plastic parts off? Are
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  Speaker 2: you going to pay at the metal recycling to have
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  Speaker 2: them take it? Or you can bring it to us.
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  Speaker 2: And this is the circular economy model that we use.
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  Speaker 2: So we were talking about that earlier. If your bike
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  Speaker 2: is broken and it can't be saved, we're going to
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  Speaker 2: take the pedals off. If we can save a tire,
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  Speaker 2: we'll do that. If we can save the grips, whatever
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  Speaker 2: we can take off of that, we're going to use
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  Speaker 2: to refill our partspins so we don't have to buy
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  Speaker 2: new parts. And a lot of the older bikes have
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  Speaker 2: just really high quality parts. We see some of these
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  Speaker 2: newer bikes being a little more you know, just downgraded
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  Speaker 2: metals and such.
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  Speaker 1: So we were talking too earlier about buying a bike
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  Speaker 1: at Bikes for kids, you guys have those those higher
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  Speaker 1: quality you know, we talk about, you know, budgets, and
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  Speaker 1: of course everybody's got a budget. Maybe you're looking for
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  Speaker 1: a great bike for yourself or for your kiddos, and
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  Speaker 1: you want something that's gonna that's going to last and
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  Speaker 1: can be a you know, whether it's hand down to
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  Speaker 1: the kids and grandkids or donate back to bikes for kids.
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  Speaker 1: The bikes you guys are selling it at that your
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  Speaker 1: shop are definitely going to be those type of.
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  Speaker 2: Bikes, absolutely and we really were a little bit like
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  Speaker 2: a bike museum. We have a little bit of everything.
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  Speaker 2: So if you're looking for a tandem, if you're looking
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  Speaker 2: for an e bike, if you're looking for our Recumbent,
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  Speaker 2: if you're looking for a Uni cycle, or you're looking
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  Speaker 2: for a commuter bike and something more standard, we have
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  Speaker 2: try bikes. We have some incredible like bikes that have
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  Speaker 2: been donated by former Ironman competitors. And I mean so
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  Speaker 2: if you want to get into road biking, but you
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  Speaker 2: don't want to put out a huge investment, this is
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  Speaker 2: a great opportunity to come by and buy a fantastic
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  Speaker 2: bicycle and you can give it a shot. And if
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  Speaker 2: you decide you don't like road biking, you know you're
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  Speaker 2: not out of five thousand dollars. You're maybe out six
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  Speaker 2: hundred dollars or eight hundred dollars.
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  Speaker 1: I love it, And of course cyberone and get information
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  Speaker 1: on that. Bikes for Kids Wi dot org. That's Bikes
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  Speaker 1: for Kids Wi dot org. Of course they've got the
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  Speaker 1: big breakdown event coming up this Saturday. Always looking for
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  Speaker 1: bike donations. Also if you can make a monetary donation
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  Speaker 1: to them line what about volunteering opportunities?
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  Speaker 3: Gift stuff like that for folks.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, so we do.
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  Speaker 2: We actually have an amazing they're probably listening right now,
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  Speaker 2: an amazing retirement community of volunteers. So a lot of
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  Speaker 2: these are men women whose wives are kicking them out
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  Speaker 2: of the house and they're like, go to bikes for
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  Speaker 2: kids to get out of here. And then they win
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  Speaker 2: because they get to eat donuts and drink coffee which
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  Speaker 2: they don't use.
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  Speaker 3: They get on a daily basis.
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  Speaker 2: So there are often all day and we get just
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  Speaker 2: really a broad array of volunteers. We have parents with
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  Speaker 2: kids coming in and that's happening during the day. We
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  Speaker 2: do have some evening nights that will kick up this
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  Speaker 2: probably early November on Tuesday nights. We'll have six to
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  Speaker 2: eight nine pm workshop nights. That's often like the younger
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  Speaker 2: people are working all day and they come out, but
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  Speaker 2: it's like a busy beehive over there all winter long
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  Speaker 2: where we're working all winter to get about two thousand
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  Speaker 2: bikes all refurbished and cleaned up to distribute in March.
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  Speaker 3: That is great.
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  Speaker 1: And Chris, do you mentioned work. You know, people coming
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  Speaker 1: in after g get like work groups or like other
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  Speaker 1: type of community organizations that maybe volunteer US as a cluster.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, we absolutely do. We actually give a phenomenal team
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  Speaker 2: building experience. That's something we've really leaned into. And yeah,
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  Speaker 2: this past week we tore apart about thirty bicycles. Seventeen
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  Speaker 2: hundred pounds of material was taken to the metal recycling
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  Speaker 2: plant in just one day. So those were bikes that
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  Speaker 2: were just they couldn't be saved, but we pulled off
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  Speaker 2: whatever parts we could. We need. We're in that mode
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  Speaker 2: right now. We need to make space as we get
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  Speaker 2: ready for a massive number of bikes to come in
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  Speaker 2: through the fall.
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  Speaker 1: It's a great day to get on in and learn
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  Speaker 1: more as well. If you had on over the website
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  Speaker 1: Bikes for Kids Wi dot org. That's Bikes for Kids
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  Speaker 1: Wi dot org. We'll put a link up to it
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  Speaker 1: also on our social media site. Christy, thank you so
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  Speaker 1: much for joining us this morning. Keep up with the
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  Speaker 1: great work and we'll talk real soon.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks so much, John, I hope to see you all
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  Speaker 3: at the bike center.
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  Speaker 1: And again the website Bikes for Kids Wi dot org.
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  Speaker 1: More of Madison the morning comes. You went next right
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  Speaker 1: here thirteen to ten w like