Project provides pedals without peddling

Bicycles of all sorts hang from the ceiling of the small garage on Madison Street. Many more line the walls of the attic upstairs. \nWhile some of these bicycles are now ready for purchase, most of them are just waiting for the right owner to give them another chance.\nThese bicycles wait behind the multi-colored, checkered doors of the Community Bike Project, 214 N. Madison St. The nonprofit organization works to provide alternative transportation to Bloomington residents by teaching bicycle maintenance.\nIn addition to periodic maintenance classes, the Community Bike Project offers a unique earn-a-bike program. After volunteering to fix up a bicycle in the shop, participants get to take it home with them at no charge. The project also opens up their tools for community members' use.\nCommunity Bike Project Volunteer Director Amber Fullenkamp started at the shop more than two years ago when she came to fix up her own bike. After that, she just kept coming back.\n"I like helping people and seeing people teach themselves hands-on," Fullenkamp said. "It's really self-empowering."\nDespite the fact that the program is not advertised, Fullenkamp said that the Community Bike Project sees about 70 to 80 people a week and runs to full capacity during the summer. \nTo accommodate the growing needs of their participants, the project recently received a grant from the Bloomington Bicycle Club. The grant provides money for tools, lights, safety locks and helmets as well as for scholarships for the project's maintenance classes, said Bloomington Bicycle Club President Allan Edmonds.\nThe Community Bike Project has also received long-term assistance from the Center for Sustainable Living, a nonprofit organization that allows it to use its status to get grants.\n"The project fits our goals," said Lucille Bertuccio, president of the Center of Sustainable Living. "They are sustainable and are saving resources, so we have a partnership."\nThe Community Bike Project sprung from a 1998 initiative called the Yellow Bike Program. A group of 15 volunteers collected bikes, fixed them and painted them yellow. Their idea was to leave them around town for everyone's use, but after running into problems, the group decided to invest in a longer-lasting project.\nGraduate student Steven Grimes was among this group and still volunteers with the Community Bike Project. \n"It's a practical thing for me to do, to go maintain my bike," Grimes said. "I was also an environmental activist as an undergraduate and see the lifestyle here that I want to live."\nGrimes said that anyone could benefit from the organization, especially since the market of people who want to ride bicycles in Bloomington is growing.\n"People are amazed that there is a resource like this," Grimes said. "Bloomington is about the right size, and it is helpful to have a bike to get around town."\nFullenkamp agreed that many in Bloomington and the surrounding areas could benefit from the organization's classes and programs.\n"It's a good thing for Monroe County, because we're here and free and willing to help people out," she said. "It's important to have a place like this, where people can come and learn to be self-sufficient"