Government
Building Community Through Bike Repair
Kids walk out of an Earn-A-Bike program in Indianapolis with life skills and a new set of wheels.
The back half of Freewheelin’ Community Bikes in Mapleton-Fall Creek, is an enormous workspace: spare tires hang from the ceilings, and wooden workbenches litter the floors. It’s standard fare for a bike-repair operation, but for the local kids who go through Freewheelin’s Earn-A-Bike program, it’s a second home.
Freewheelin’ opened as a bike co-op in the basement of a local church in 2008, says Holly Titus, the organization’s executive director. Looking to bike restoration programs at co-ops in cities like Minneapolis and Chicago, Freewheelin’ moved to a larger space and established its Earn-A-Bike program in 2010.