It's good to be back! Anna and I recently returned from our 2 week trip to Northern
Minnesota, rested and energized!
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| Wagons EAST! |
While visiting Minnesota I had the opportunity to hang with
an extraordinary band of volunteers who
staff the Fargo Moorhead Bike Workshop. These people are committed to doin’ good in the
neighborhood!
In their words,
the Bike Workshop gets people who aren’t going to buy a bike shop bike on safe and
reliable bicycles. The Workshop provides wrenching services that help teach
customers how to build, maintain and fix their bikes. These are services a bike
shop can’t offer. 
Throughout the week I got several chances to experience the
Bike Workshop not only as a spectator but also after volunteering a couple of
hours. During that time on a very hot and humid Thursday evening I got a chance
to talk with Steve and Alex in depth about how their non-profit “collective”
works and how jobs are divvied up. The FM Bike Workshop has a collective group
of volunteers who meet on Sundays who identified the jobs that didn’t get done
from the previous week, assemble a bike parts order, discuss current topics and
plan for upcoming community events. 
I returned later that week on Sunday for their collective
meeting. Items on the agenda were shop cleaning, organizational development and
collective oversight, how to fill out the receipt book, how to register a sale
of fundraiser bikes, the weekly parts order, and a discussion of BikeBike! Which
had just taken place in Vancouver BC.
It was refreshing to hear a group of dedicated volunteers
having a progressive and positive discussion about bikes, with the a common
vision of moving Fargo forward. Fargo had recently been recognized by Bicycling
Magazine as an up-and-coming place for biking. Fargo had made great strides in
becoming more bicycle friendly over the past few years. According to a couple
of riders I met during the Great Northern’s weekly “Fargo Family Bike Night” A
lot of this is due to advocates in the community and an increasing number of organized
rides led by community volunteers.
The night Anna, my Dad and I rode with them there were upwards to 40 people riding along. It
reminded me of Bike Night 4 or 5 years ago.
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| Cruising Broadway! |
Having been born and raised in the Fargo-Moorhead area I
thought I knew Fargo backwards and forwards. After the ride I clearly
understood – I have become a tourist in my hometown. It was great riding bikes rediscovering
the town where so much of my life was spent.
Prior to leaving the Bike Shop on our family cruise I
remember hoping we’d return by riding Broadway. Shortly after leaving Island Grove Park we made our turn north on
to Broadway. Cruising Broadway on bikes was great, something I hadn’t felt
since riding bikes for the first time down Nicollet Mall in downtown
Minneapolis shortly after graduating from college in 1994.
I took away several things from my time in Minnesota and Fargo,
North Dakota. 1 is getting people together to ride bikes is truly a community
building event. 2. We really want to do good for other people. 3. Exploring new
and new-to-you places is more fun when there’s bikes and free Gelato involved.
And, finally, eventhough my family got a brief mention here, they are a
super-fun bunch of people!
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| Wagons WEST! |
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