The OBC has taken a giant leap forward with grants from the Stocker and Bill Long foundations that have enabled the organization to hire a student employee, to keep books and plan a budget, says Sadhu Johnston ’98, a member of the co-op board.

"We’ve also organized a town/gown board and developed a decision-making infrastructure, which enables us to have a more consistent vision and not rely just on student volunteers. These funds and a better organization have made us more effective in reaching out to youth in the community and in serving our members."

Last spring’s $9,000 Stocker grant helped OBC upgrade its facilities at the rear of Keep Cottage, purchase new sets of tools, and rebuild repair bays. "Now we can offer the entire community affordable bike expertise, as well as new and used parts and used bikes for sale," Johnston says.

A major OBC initiative is the partnership recently forged with the Office of Safety and Security: "They give us discarded bikes and we recycle them, pun intended," says board member Ben Sanders ‘98. "We pay the graduates of our classes to repair and refurbish them and then we rent them to College students for the academic year."

The officers also take photos of the bikes and register them with the city, helping to insure that they stay in town. The program, which started with 20 bicycles, has been successful--by mid-October, the co-op had a 60-person wait list.

Down the road, OBC members envision the relocation of the bike shop closer to the North Coast Heritage Bike Trail; increased lobbying for more bike lanes throughout the county; local business sponsorship of bike teams; a directory of top 40 rides in and around northeastern Ohio; and evolution into a cooperative business.

Perhaps the co-op’s proudest achievement is its innovative outreach program, which Petersen considers "an exceptional model for effective, multifaceted, student driven community outreach."

This summer, juniors Katherine Renner and David Bevacqua co-directed a bike repair, maintenance, and safety class for Oberlin adults, one for Oberlin youths, and several others in nearby housing projects and community centers.

The co-op gave teens damaged bicycles and taught them how to restore them. Upon completion of the class, helmets, locks and the repaired bikes were theirs to keep. One class member learned so much he stayed on and helped during the second phase of the summer outreach--a three-week session for 15 teens at the Wilkes Villa housing project in Elyria.

"We're empowering these kids to be more self-sufficient," says Renner, whose work with the teens has her considering a career in education. "The most rewarding thing for me is seeing them learn a skill that they can really use. I've watched a boy with a usually low attention span spend an hour adjusting his brakes."

This fall, the co-op is engaged in a program that reaches out even further: to adjudicated or juvenile first offenders. Under Renner’s direction, three Oberlin teens are completing 20 hours of community service refurbishing bikes for the rental program.

"We're hoping that as the number of involved kids increases, working side-by-side with OBC members will be an after-school draw. We believe the co-op has huge potential to integrate College students with Oberlin citizens."