Free Bikes 4 Kidz Maryland Inc

We aim to collect, refurbish, and give away unused and unwanted bicycles to kids in need. Thousands of them, all across the state, thus improving the health and happiness of children and reducing the number of bikes entering the waste stream.

We conduct a bicycle collection drive in October, spend ten weeks cleaning, refurbishing, and repairing them with volunteer labor, do a final safety check on each and every bicycle, and then give them away with a new helmet to children in need in December.

We work with government and nonprofit organizations to identify children in need and to match them with size- and ability-appropriate bicycles.

We work with volunteers--students, retirees, bicycle enthusiasts, and other members of the public--to clean, refurbish, and repair the bikes.

We work with national vendors of bike tools, bike parts, and helmets to obtain significant cost savings for the tools and parts we need to do this.

We encourage children to ride through participation in bike rodeos, bike safety education programs, and other outreach activities.

We take advantage of a virtually unlimited supply of unused bicycles, the preexisting knowledge of local nonprofits and government organizations able to identify children in need, and the enthusiasm of adult and student volunteers to collect, clean, refurbish, and give away bicycles.

Our President has worked with FB4K in Minneapolis for ten years before moving to Maryland, and understands the unique organizational culture and processes of Free Bikes 4 Kidz. Our Vice President leads the local school district's Bike Safety Education Program, and our Secretary/Treasurer is a certified bicycle Instructor and an officer in a local bicycle advocacy group. Our volunteers include bike shop owners and workers, bicycle enthusiasts, students, parents, and others, and our processes enable us to use their skills to best advantage in cleaning, preparing, fixing, and safety checking donated bicycles.

Our partners are government and nonprofit agencies that work to assist children in need in other arenas, such as Head Start, Title 1, Free and Reduced Meals, and special education programs.

Our sponsors are organizations concerned with children, health, equity, and community support.

In our FY 2020 campaign, undertaken with one month's notice, we collected 512 bicycles, and gave away 492 of them for a scrap rate of less than 4%. We did this using over 1500 volunteer hours at a cost of about $32 per child served, including a new helmet. Our collection rate was about 1.8 per thousand in population in our initial market area.

In our FY 2021 campaign, despite the pandemic, we collected 1640 bicycles, and gave away 960 of them for a scrap rate of less than 4%. We did this using over 2500 volunteer hours at a cost of about $42 per child served, including a new helmet (bicycle valuations rose dramatically due to the pandemic). 646 bicycles remaining in inventory were being refurbished for distribution in 2021.

In our FY 2022 campaign, again despite the pandemic, we collected 2828 bicycles and gave away 2125 of them, scrapping 5% and storing the rest pending receipt of repair parts. We did this using over 3500 volunteer hours at a cost of about $16 per child served, including a new helmet.

In our FY 2023 campaign we collected 2531 bicycles and gave away 2401 of them, scrapping 7% and storing the rest pending receipt of repair parts. We did this using over 4500 volunteer hours at a cost of about $22.50 per child served, including a new helmet.