The state of the Temple–Rolling forward into our second year

Greetings Bicycle Believers!

What a year it has been! Since our first official meetings in March of 2009 we have seen the Bike Temple grow and involve itself in some very great ways. The clergy here have brought you on 3 Joy of Sects Rides, helped organize 7 other group rides, built the city's first bicycle shrine, hosted or participated in over 25 community events, and opened up a community bicycle healing workshop with worship and event facilities attached!

While our main mission has always been to deepen people's relationship with their bicycles, the folks at the temple have also set their sights on higher plains. Here are a few things that make the Bike Temple unique and valuable to its congregation...

• Our group and its members are involved in activism, advocacy, and education within the community in a wide variety of ways.
• Our events and facilities exist to help the community provide for those in need of bicycles or services that could not otherwise afford them.
• Our Joy of Sects guided religion tours and similar events are designed to help those who believe in the power of the bicycle find an organized religion that suits them, and learn more about the area's spiritual assets.
• We are a negative-profit group, sustained by the sacrifices of a handful of individuals who ask for nothing in return.

Our goals for 2010 are to continue and mature our current path, as well as expand our shop services and hours, event calendar, community outreach. We would like to make the Bike Temple a known and valuable asset to the bicycling community. We have no doubt that all of this and more will be possible.

Our current financial obligations are not large, but we are still personally burdened with them, and in order to sustain and expand it will be necessary to find more people in the community who believe in our cause and actions to help contribute in any way possible. We have a solid obligation of $150 each month to our landlords, and while a few gracious individuals have stepped up to help meet that obligation from time to time, we still find that sum coming from the pockets of 2-5 of us a majority of the time.

We hope to find more people in the community who are willing to pitch in a one-time or small monthly contribution. The monetary burden on just a few people can be uncomfortable, but spread across many supporters it is easy.

If you would like to make a regular or one-time contribution to the Bike Temple, please contact us using this form or drop it by our shop during open hours. We do not currently have the capability to process online payments, but we are more than happy to provide you with a mailing address or come and pick up your contribution personally. Please note that because we are not a legally a non-profit organization (yet) your donation will not be tax deductible, but it will be put to great work.

We wish to express our humble thanks to everyone who has contributed their time, services, donations, and presence this year. We expect 2010 to be even better!

In the name of the wheel, the chain, and the hollow frame,
Let us ride.

-The Bike Temple