#GivingTuesday: Bikemore wants to be more

Dear Supporters,

I always felt lucky to lead a bike advocacy organization called Bikemore. It’s perfect in its simplicity. It makes it clear our focus is bikes, while leaving room for us to grow into more. And this year we grew. We grew from a staff of three to five. We tripled the number of bikes we fixed at our Mobile Bike Shop, we doubled the number of people who rode in Cranksgiving. All while successfully advocating for new bike lanes, crosswalks, and traffic calming. 

Since we were founded in 2012, Bikemore’s work was focused on getting bike lanes built. Maryland Avenue, Monument Street, the Big Jump and miles of supporting facilities built over the past few years means that biking is much safer today. Connecting the rest of the city to safe, comfortable places to walk and bike is a huge effort. It is not an effort a five person non-profit can do alone. Which is why we must devote time and resources to building the human infrastructure needed to sustain our movement. 
 
Your donation, whether it’s today or next week, supports programs and advocacy that help neighborhoods across the city fight for access to opportunity through improved mobility. And the right to live somewhere they can walk and bike safely. Thank you for helping us be more to more people. When you give, you’re ensuring that with each passing year the people of Baltimore can do more of what we love, we can bike more. 

Sincerely,

Liz Cornish, Executive Director

Make a Direct Action Donation (501c4)

Direct Action donations are our greatest need. They can fund everything we do, including directly lobbying elected officials, running grassroots organizing campaigns, and advocating for or against legislation. They are not tax-deductible.

Make a Charitable Donation (501c3)

Charitable donations can only fund our education, organizing, and programming, but may be tax-deductible.

Road construction company P. Flanigan & Sons invests in Baltimore's bike community

Pierce Flanigan (left) with Liz Cornish, Bikemore’s Executive Director, and Jon Laria, Chair of Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Commission, at the Big Jump Block Party last August.

P. Flanigan and Sons is a road construction company that has been in business in Baltimore for over 100 years. Pierce Flanigan, a Baltimore City resident who loves riding his bike, is the fifth generation to lead the company. 

This year we are thrilled to be welcoming P. Flanigan and Sons as our title sponsor of Cranksgiving for a second year. P. Flanigan and Sons supports many causes and events across the City, and we appreciate their generosity and commitment to building a better Baltimore. Many employees at P. Flanigan and Sons live in the City and ride bikes. They know first hand the importance of building streets that prioritize the safety of all users. Bikemore is grateful for their work as the lead construction crew on many of Baltimore’s protected bike lanes.

Afghan Cycles screening brings together neighbors, riders, and local advocates

Bikemore focuses on making Baltimore a safer, more connected and accessible place for people who bike and walk, and that’s often thought of as ensuring that there are places to ride without fear of getting hit by a car. But we know that personal safety is way more complex than that. What determines if someone feels safe on our streets and in our public space involves a lot of complex layers of race, class, gender, and culture — and we know that’s especially true here in Baltimore. And that’s why we were excited to bring a screening of Afghan Cycles, a documentary about the challenges and victories women cycling in Afghanistan face, to Baltimore.

We were proud to work with the Creative Alliance, Asylee Women's Enterprise, Southeast CDC, and the Patterson Park Girls Mountain Biking Team to host a neighborhood bike ride and show this film that speaks to the importance and intersection of what safety means and feels like on the road for people biking.

Coaches Becky Redett and Cathy Witt along with two youth riders from the Patterson Park Girls Mountain Bike Team led us through Patterson Park, where they practice regularly. They showed us the grassy hill next to the Pagoda where they learned to descend and rode down a few stairs to show off the bike handling skills they’ve learned. The riders shared that learning how to mountain bike — in Patterson Park, on trails outside of the city, and at races — has provided them a whole lot of confidence and fun, and the coaches shared what it takes to start a youth bike team. (They’re always looking for volunteer helpers and coaches — get in touch!)

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Molly McCullagh, Director of Neighborhood Revitalization from Southeast Community Development led us through the Patterson Park neighborhood. She highlighted a mural at Fayette and Milton by artists Shawn James and Charles Lawrence, along with an adjacent artistic bus stop bench by sculptors Tim Scofield and Kyle Miller. She also showed us the community led art and greening efforts at Library Square. Along with the BUS sculptural bus stop next to the Creative Alliance, Molly pointed out creative placemaking projects that connect transportation to art and local culture, providing respite and beauty for transit riders and neighbors alike.

Our hope is that the ride and screening it inspired participants to think more intentionally about how we can create acceptance and safety for bicyclists in our community: both in the broader world and in Baltimore.

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Want to make more free events like this possible?

Cranksgiving early bird registration closes Friday!

video by Corey Jennings

Cranksgiving is an annual event that takes place in cities across the country, and it’s all about having fun and giving back. In Baltimore, this scavenger hunt/bike race/food drive sends teams of riders across the city to collect food items to benefit Moveable Feast and the Franciscan Center. Basically, it's all about collecting food for people and riding bikes with friends, new and old. This is Bikemore’s 5th Annual Cranksgiving!

Where is the food being donated? 

This year, we’re continuing to work with two partner organizations. Moveable Feast fosters a community that cares for men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-threatening illnesses by preparing and delivering nutritious meals and groceries and providing nutritional counseling and other services. The Franciscan Center is Bikemore’s neighbor, and provides emergency assistance and supportive outreach to persons who are economically disadvantaged, including community meals and pantry bags, job readiness training, healthcare, transportation assistance and much more. 

How can I register? 

The best way to register is online before the event.

• October 28 - November 8 | Early bird online registration
  This is the only way to purchase a Cranksgiving t-shirt!

• November 8 - November 22 | Online registration
  Makes check in at event way quicker!

• November 23 | On site registration

  If you forget to register online or convince a friend last-minute to join, don’t worry — they can register on-site on the day of the ride.

If you have a team in mind already, make sure to mark your teammates names on your registration form. Or, sign up as a free agent and meet some new friends to ride with at the event.

How much does it cost to participate? 

By design, Cranksgiving is and will always be a free event — meaning Bikemore will never charge registration cost to participate. We do ask that each person on a team bring $10-15 to help purchase food items on the list. But how much you are able to spend is entirely up to you! 

What should I bring?

• Working bike (if you have one)

• Toolkit for repairing your or your teammates bikes (if you have one) 

• Bag to carry purchases (backpacks, panniers, baskets — whatever you have!) 

• $10-15 for purchasing food items we will donate

• Bike lock for stopping at grocery stores

Don’t have a bike?

Don’t worry! RecnParks will be partnering with us and will be lending bikes at the event. To make sure we have a bike for you, register online and note on your form that you need to borrow a bike.

How far is the ride? Is there a set route?

We provide a list of specific grocery stores, and it’s up to each team to strategize and come up with a route. If you go to all the stops, your team might ride 15-20 miles, but many teams don’t make it to all the stops. And there are a lot of fun ways to get extra points that mean it’s not just the fastest teams that win!

Who can ride? 

Anyone that can ride a bike - Cranksgiving is all about having fun! Of course, winning teams in their respective categories will be winning some sweet prizes from our sponsors (see below). We’ll also have special team categories for Youth/Family for teams with a rider under the age of 16, and a WTF category for women, trans, femme and non-binary teams. 

What do you win?

Thanks to our prize sponsors, you could win prizes from any of these local companies!

I’m still confused. Who should I contact? 

Check out the full FAQ here, and feel free to drop a line with Danielle, our Director of Community Partnerships at danielle@bikemore.net. 

See you at Cranksgiving! Keep up with our social media to get updates on what fun prizes to expect (in case you or a friend needs the extra motivation to participate and win ;)).

Nov 1st - 10th: Neighborhood Lights demonstrate neighbor led placemaking

When you think about how to make streets safer for all the people who use them, you might think about a bike lane or a crosswalk, or the speed that cars travel. While these undoubtedly make streets safer for people who bike and walk, it’s aspects like lighting, trees and plants, artwork, reflections of the culture of neighbors — these are the things that really bring life to streets, the things that make people enjoy their time in public space, encourage people to hang out and develop relationships with their neighbors. These are the things that build stronger, connected neighborhoods.

As part of BOPA’s Light City festival, they award grants to install light installations in neighborhoods throughout Baltimore through their Neighborhood Lights program. And there are two we supported that we’re particularly excited about — check them out November 1st though 10th!

Oliver Light, Oliver Bright

We first met Celena Owens when she was recommended to come on our study trip to Memphis. She is very active in her Oliver neighborhood, and helps take care of and improve neighborhood green spaces and play spaces through the Oliver Beautification Alliance (OBA). The Oliver Light, Oliver Bright project is lighting up three greenspaces in the community to encourage neighbors as well as visitors to explore Oliver in a different way, and to create welcoming and activated community spaces for neighbors to use in the evenings.

We were excited to be able to support Oliver Beautification Alliance’s Neighborhood Lights Grant by being their fiscal sponsor.

>> Read more about Oliver and their Neighborhood Lights project here.

Arches & Access in Reservoir Hill

For the past few years we have been partnering with Graham Coreil-Allen, Reservoir Hill Improvement Council, and neighbors on a variety of community art and traffic calming projects in Reservoir Hill, including a footprint crosswalk project and way finding for the Big Jump. Graham, along with Courtney Conner Bettle, Jessy DeSantis, Graham Coreil-Allen, and Kate Jennings, Reservoir Hill Improvement Council, TAP Druid Hill, and the Rawlings Conservatory developed the Arches and Access Neighborhood Lights project as a continuation of their neighborhood work to make it easier and safer for neighbors to access Druid Hill Park. The Arches and Access project will illuminate and activate the landmark Druid Hill Park Gate at Madison Avenue with colorful lights, as well as a community parade, and public walking tour.

>> Read more about the Arches and Access Neighborhood Lights project.

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Click here to find out where the rest of the Neighborhood Lights installations are, and make a bike ride out of it!