Organizations collaborate to assemble mountain bikes for Missoula’s youth

In the summer, Missoula’s mountains, trails and sunshine invite young adults to get outside and connect with their town and its surrounding wilderness.

From his own childhood, Josh Jones knows a bike is the best way to do just that.

“I grew up riding my bike all over,” said Jones, the executive director at Greater Missoula Youth for Christ. “When I was a kid, that’s all we did in the summer. I actually went over the handlebars and I have a fake tooth, so biking was a huge part of my childhood.”

Despite his accident, Jones continued to bike, and today helps run camps and activities for teens around Missoula. Youth for Christ is part of City Life, a community center that houses 16 nonprofits that serve teens and their families.

Jones recently contacted David Bell, CEO of ALPS Lawyers' Malpractice Insurance, about a new way to serve Montana’s youth. Bell’s company then funded 15 brand-new mountain bikes for City Life, which will be used all over the state and can be lent to different organizations that also serve teens.

“What we found that was cool about this is, we buy these bikes, the bikes are used by the kids that run through their program, then they partner with other organizations to give kids access to these bikes so that the bikes are always in the field, being used by kids,” Bell said. “So they’re kind of the property of everyone.”

The bikes arrived disassembled in boxes. For help putting them together, and to learn about bike maintenance, Jones and Bell turned to Free Cycles, a nonprofit in Missoula that works to create a more sustainable community through education and access to bikes.

“One of the key things we like in City Life is to collaborate,” Jones said. “To work with lots of organizations to provide really great, healthy activities for teenagers.”

Free Cycles also frequently collaborates with other organizations in Missoula, often through informal partnerships in exchange for tea and cookies, or other donations.

On Wednesday morning, Free Cycles volunteers paired with people from ALPS and City Life to assemble all 15 bikes. Free Cycles’ executive director Bob Giordano demonstrated how to hang the bike up on the wall, grease the chain and inflate the tires.

Though many people present had never assembled a bike before, they learned quickly, and within an hour every bike was ready to go. Giordano said the most important things to notice when maintaining a bike are the air levels, brakes and the chain. But there’s more to it than that.

“A bike should be comfortable,” Giordano said. “If it’s not comfortable, then something should be adjusted. An uncomfortable bike will not be ridden. One less bike ridden is possibly one more climate-changing, pollution-creating device on the road. And we want to do our part as an organization in the community to make the world a healthy place for the next seven generations, at least.”

Many kids would agree that riding a bike is fun, but Free Cycles tries to instill a sense of responsibility for caring for the bikes, which in turn makes kids more autonomous and empowered. A few factors go into that.

“For one, getting their hands on the bikes, and making it fun. Second, making a bikeable community. And third, having good role models.”

The bikes assembled Wednesday will be used for the first time next week at a youth camp on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. The camp is free for kids who live on the reservation, and will include activities like horseback riding, hiking, swimming, rock climbing and, of course, biking.

City Life has multiple ministries, one of which works with youth who are in prison or jail, on probation, in treatment centers, or other correctional facilities. Mikenzie Potter, 19, started working in the Juvenile Justice Ministry about a month ago after being released from jail. At Free Cycles on Wednesday, he learned to assemble a bike.

While imprisoned, Potter met with people from the ministry who introduced him to God. Potter, who began using drugs at a young age, said their advice has changed the way he approaches life.

“I was a pretty hateful, mean person beforehand,” Potter said. “And getting to know God and my identity in that really impacted the way I view people or anything in life - the way I act, treat family. The whole meaning and concept of family. Everything in my life improved, and that’s pretty hard to do when you’re in jail.”

When Potter was released, City Life already had business cards ready for him and an open position. Now he visits young people in jail to share his story. On Saturday, he’ll go to Fort Belknap to work at the youth camp.

“Now being out, which has been a little over a month, it's been amazing,” Potter said. “It’s like I don’t even remember the old me.”