Bike Co-op Campaigns for Program Funding

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Created on Friday, 03 January 2025 14:55

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By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Sitka’s local bicycle cooperative is in the midst of a fundraising push to continue its youth-focused programming in the coming year.
    Begun in October, the fundraiser has brought in over $8,000 of its $14,500 goal, Salty Spoke youth program coordinator Laura Tirman said.

A welded metal sign hangs off the Salty Spoke building located behind
the KCAW Raven Radio Cable House. (Sentinel Photo)

    “We’re raising funds right now to continue our youth programs,” Tirman said. “That’s the most expensive part of Salty Spoke – otherwise we’re volunteer run, but our youth programs and our rent are really what we need funding for.”
    Founded in 2020, Salty Spoke works with groups such as the Sitka Sound Science Center, Youth Advocates of Sitka and 4-H Alaska Way of Life, which is hosted by the Sitka Conservation Society, Salty Spoke’s parent organization. Tirman hopes the nonprofit organization can continue offering its full slate of youth programs this winter and spring.
    “We are looking forward to running our second annual girls empowerment bike club with Mt. Edgecumbe High School... and then we also will continue our Pacific High classes once a week. We’re going to work with YAS to run, I think, four sessions with them, doing biking and bike maintenance,” Tirman said.
    Salty Spokes also plans to work with the city Parks and Rec department on a weekly bike club, said, and also run a week-long spring break camp, a program they held for the first time last year.
    Of the money already raised in the current campaign, much came from larger contributions, while some were in small amounts.
    All told, Salty Spoke’s annual operating expenses come to about $60,000, she said.
    “We’ve been lucky to have some larger anonymous donors. Otherwise, we’ve mainly been sharing this fundraising effort with our members, friends and family… There’s a lot of people who still don’t know the Salty Spoke exists or what we do, and so part of the fundraiser has also been just spreading the word of how to become a member and what your membership fees go to,” Tirman said.
    Salty Spoke is a membership-based cooperative which holds bike workshops 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays, where members have access to a variety of bicycle tools and the assistance of knowledgeable volunteers. The workshop is an outbuilding behind the KCAW Raven Radio cable house on Lincoln Street.
    The Salty Spoke website for donations and membership signups is //www.saltyspoke.com/. The co-op suggests that members contribute two times their hourly wage for an annual membership.  
    The organization estimates that in 2024 it served more than 140 school-age kids, hosting about 400 hours of youth programming. Of the group’s income, about two-thirds comes from grants, a quarter is donated and the remainder comes from other sources. As for expenses, two-thirds is for staff, while operations, supplies and events fill out the remainder, a Salty Spoke document states.
    “We’ve had to alter what we offer depending on what we raise,” Tirman said. “But we have been both lucky and have put a lot of work into raising the funds needed for the last two years, to run those youth programs. But this time, we’ve kind of run into a little bit of, ‘Oh no, those youth programs start in January, and we’re a little behind.’”
    Along with programs for young people, Salty Spoke facilitates the local cycling club, which advocates for safer infrastructure for bike riders and pedestrians.
    “We are hoping to continue our advocacy for improved biking and walking safety… working with the city and the state, but shorter-term goals are just continuing to talk about how to be a safe biker and how to be a safe driver, and hope that more education and communication helps,” she said.