As many of you know, I am a teacher. I teach grades 7-12. My program focuses on helping “at-risk students”. At-risk doesn’t necessarily mean “bad” it just means that there may be some things going on in their life that put them at risk of dropping out of school and often times it is not something that they have control over. I am not going to go into detail on what those reasons are but I will say that the list is long and sometimes I am astonished that they come to school at all.
I discovered OldMiniBikes almost five years ago. Since then some students from my program have participated in the OldMiniBikes Build-Off. Over the last four years, students from my program have built five bikes. Four bikes for the build-off and one bike was raffled off. (They raised over $5000 for a teacher who had been diagnosed with breast cancer.) The news coverage that my program has received over the past couple of years has been unbelievable and the result has built a fantastic relationship between the program I teach and the surrounding community. Better then I could ever dream possible. A large result has been that they have gotten to participate in something that has brought them more than recognition. They learned to set goals and achieve them, how to work as a team, they learned some basic mechanics, how to read a shop manual, search for parts, place an order, reconcile an invoice, etc. The list goes on and on. They also learned what it is like to do something for someone else for no other reason than because it is the right thing to do. (Service Learning) My students stay after school and come in on Saturdays if they have to. (It doesn’t sound like much but this is huge.) They are also seeing the results of what hard work and commitment to something can do. Last year I received an email from a local small engine shop. They asked if there was anything they could do to help my students with the Build-Off. They volunteered to help find parts, provide machine work, and give discounts on parts. This is the beginning of what I hope will develop into a partnership in the coming years.
Finally, towards the end of last year's term, I received a phone call from a gentleman that bought a bike back in 1967. He rode it, his brother rode it, his friends rode it, etc. He has many great memories of riding that minibike. Over time the bike was passed around from family member to family member until one day he received a call from his Mom. His brother had been riding the bike and somehow it caught fire and was no longer rideable. The bike was then disassembled with the idea that it would be repaired. The bike took a back seat to other things and eventually he got the bike back from his brother and put it in the shed behind his house. The bike sat in his shed and collected dust (around 40 years) until he read about my students in the newspaper. The next day he called me and asked if my students might want to try to put his old bike back together. I asked him if he would be willing to wait until the next Build-Off so my students could use it to compete with. He agreed and in the next couple of weeks, my students will be entering a 1967 Sears Runabout in the Build-Off. They are very excited (as am I) and can't wait to see him take a ride on his bike again.
I felt that I needed to write this because four years ago when I decided to ask my students if they wanted to enter the Build-Off, my thought was that their participation might give them some incentive to stay in school and possibly improve their grades as well as their attendance. In my wildest dreams, I could not have asked for better results. I wish I could take credit for all that has happened but the reality is that I bought a bike and my students have done the rest. The Build-Off has become an integral part of my program and is sometimes the main reason students enroll. It's not my program anymore, it's their program.
The pride I feel for my students and how far they have come sometimes overwhelms me with pride and a large part of that has been their participation in the OldMiniBikes Build-Off each year.
I just want to say, “Thanks, OldMiniBikes!”
I discovered OldMiniBikes almost five years ago. Since then some students from my program have participated in the OldMiniBikes Build-Off. Over the last four years, students from my program have built five bikes. Four bikes for the build-off and one bike was raffled off. (They raised over $5000 for a teacher who had been diagnosed with breast cancer.) The news coverage that my program has received over the past couple of years has been unbelievable and the result has built a fantastic relationship between the program I teach and the surrounding community. Better then I could ever dream possible. A large result has been that they have gotten to participate in something that has brought them more than recognition. They learned to set goals and achieve them, how to work as a team, they learned some basic mechanics, how to read a shop manual, search for parts, place an order, reconcile an invoice, etc. The list goes on and on. They also learned what it is like to do something for someone else for no other reason than because it is the right thing to do. (Service Learning) My students stay after school and come in on Saturdays if they have to. (It doesn’t sound like much but this is huge.) They are also seeing the results of what hard work and commitment to something can do. Last year I received an email from a local small engine shop. They asked if there was anything they could do to help my students with the Build-Off. They volunteered to help find parts, provide machine work, and give discounts on parts. This is the beginning of what I hope will develop into a partnership in the coming years.
Finally, towards the end of last year's term, I received a phone call from a gentleman that bought a bike back in 1967. He rode it, his brother rode it, his friends rode it, etc. He has many great memories of riding that minibike. Over time the bike was passed around from family member to family member until one day he received a call from his Mom. His brother had been riding the bike and somehow it caught fire and was no longer rideable. The bike was then disassembled with the idea that it would be repaired. The bike took a back seat to other things and eventually he got the bike back from his brother and put it in the shed behind his house. The bike sat in his shed and collected dust (around 40 years) until he read about my students in the newspaper. The next day he called me and asked if my students might want to try to put his old bike back together. I asked him if he would be willing to wait until the next Build-Off so my students could use it to compete with. He agreed and in the next couple of weeks, my students will be entering a 1967 Sears Runabout in the Build-Off. They are very excited (as am I) and can't wait to see him take a ride on his bike again.
I felt that I needed to write this because four years ago when I decided to ask my students if they wanted to enter the Build-Off, my thought was that their participation might give them some incentive to stay in school and possibly improve their grades as well as their attendance. In my wildest dreams, I could not have asked for better results. I wish I could take credit for all that has happened but the reality is that I bought a bike and my students have done the rest. The Build-Off has become an integral part of my program and is sometimes the main reason students enroll. It's not my program anymore, it's their program.
The pride I feel for my students and how far they have come sometimes overwhelms me with pride and a large part of that has been their participation in the OldMiniBikes Build-Off each year.
I just want to say, “Thanks, OldMiniBikes!”
