Update: Community helps after thieves hit Seattle's Bike Works shop

Update: Jan. 23 — Executive director Jake Beattie says response to the burglary at Seattle's Bike Works has been huge. The shop had its biggest volunteer work party last week, and a Mercer Island police officer has pulled together a collection of “evidence bikes” that area agencies had been storing.

The program also received enough donations to cover the cost of increasing security in its storage yard.

“Thanks to all of you who helped turn a negative situation into an expression of community and care,” Beattie said.

Jan. 17 — A non-profit Seattle bike shop that encourages kids into bicycling is in sudden need of bikes and volunteer bike mechanics after burglars stole some bikes recently.

Bike Works is a 15-year-old program in the Columbia City neighborhood of Seattle that educates youth about bicycles to help them lead healthy and productive lives.

Burglars targeted this worthwhile program sometime recently and took a “large pile” of bicycles from the storage yard in back of the shop.  Needless to say, this rip-off was a huge setback for the program.

The bikes were destined for distribution to neighbhorhood children in the Kid's Bike Swap scheduled for May 8. Volunteers had been working on the bikes since September during repair nights and youth earn-a-bike classes and drop-in hours.

In some cases, the bikes had been repaired by some kids in the program for use by other kids.

Most of the stolen bicycles were large-sized bikes for older youths. They're more difficult to collect and take longer to fix.

Bike Works is turning to the community for:

• Good condition adult bikes – smaller mountain bikes (26” wheels) and road bikes (700 cm. wheels) especially.
• Good condition 24” wheeled bikes. To donate a bike, email Donald at recycling@bikeworks.org or call our shop during business hours at 206.725.9408 x3
• Volunteers who can repair bikes – specifically volunteers with shop level mechanic expertise.If you are interested in repairing bikes, contact Davey at volunteers@bikeworks.org or 206.725.9408 x2
• Any other donation (monetary or material) that can help us offset our loss. To donate to Bike Works, click here.

Visit the BikeWorks blog for more information.

Meanwhile, check out this video that explains more about the mission of the Bike Works mission: