Bike Business

The following was written by Cathy Flynn, Dove's Vocational and Recreation Center Program Director.

We posted earlier about the work that the boys are doing with the bikes. Here is some more info...
We had a bicycle workshop with the 14-17 year old boys this week. We had Niko come in and teach them how to put the donated bicycles together, how to grease the chains, how to adjust the brakes, rules of the road, arm signals, etc.
We have been wracking our brain trying to figure out the best way to give out these donated bicycles. We were going to raffle off one a month to the Estrella del Mes, (Star of the month) but realized that would take 24 months for 24 bikes, and we want them to be used, not sitting idle. So we sat down with the boys yesterday, and what better way, we asked THEM what could we do, as we weren't going to hand them a free bike, what could we do?
Well they discussed it amongst themselves, then told us they wanted to start a business!!!! They want us to give them a loan, like the bank, in the form of the bike. They will then rent the bike out for 10 pesos for 15 minutes, to their friends. We will charge them 4000 pesos per bike, and they will pay down the loan until they pay off the bike and it's theirs. In the end they will take all the profit and start their own bike shop. It will also give us a chance to teach them about contracts, legalities of the rental, contracts, the cost of repairs etc.
Can't believe THEY thought of this idea, we are so proud of them......









Don't forget to check out the blog page for the older boys to read more about what they have been up to!