Marian Potter '00 demonstrates techniques used to repair and maintain bicycles during a class for local youth at the Bike Co-op. PHOTOGRAPHS BY SUE KROPP
			Bike Co-op Picks up Speed By Betty Gabrielli
			AUGUST 15, 2000--This summer, members of the Oberlin College Bike Co-op reinforced Oberlin's reputation as a Bike Friendly Community and held two sessions of bike repair and maintenance classes for local youth and night classes for adults. Several youths from Stepping Stones, a halfway house program at the Juvenile Detention Center, also participated in a bike repair program. "We believe the Co-op has huge potential to integrate college students with Oberlin citizens," said the Co-op's co-founder John Petersen last fall. What is being done to realize that potential? "A lot," according to rising senior Graeme McHenry of Philadelphia. McHenry, a biology and environmental studies major as well as a Bonner scholar, has been a member of the Co-op for the last three years. He is one of three students who served as summer coordinators for the maintenance programs. Working with him were Ben Sanders '98 and Marian Potter '00. To match a $2500 challenge grant from the Stocker Foundation by fall, Co-op staffers passed the hat at the Friday evening band concerts on Tappan Square and raffled off several refurbished bikes. Helping them from clear across the country is devoted Bike Co-oper Kristian Whitsett . He volunteered to raise money via a bike trek from Oakland, California back to Oberlin. McHenry estimates that Whitsett has raised about $1,000 to date and has several more weeks left before he reaches Oberlin. "The bike rental program has been a success for the Co-op," says McHenry. More than 55 bikes abandoned on campus have been turned over to the organization for repair since last fall. During the last rental session, all the bikes were snapped up within two hours. Marjorie Burton, assistant director of Safety and Security and bike rental liaison with the Co-op, points out that the program provides low-end transportation for students and visitors. She adds, "The bike rental program creates an alternative to driving, and relieves the tight parking situation on campus." On Tuesday, August 29, members of the Bike Co-op and the Office of Safety and Security will be on Tappan Square from 10 A.M. until 2 P.M. for the Parents' Resource Fair, where members will provide new students with information about the Co-op and bike registration and safety. For more information about the bike rental program or maintenance classes, telephone at Co-op at (440) 775-5351.
			Ben Sanders '98 helps the boys overhaul the rear hubs of their bikes.
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