Jesse Gray of SFUR Overseeing Quality Assurance at the Old Navy Bike Build.

What a tremendously satisfying event this was!

Special thanks goes out to Playworks, a non-profit that is culturing and educating young people through quality unstructured play.

Playworks Executive Director  Ellen Goodman brought this unique concept to the Old Navy Regional Corporate  meeting held on Wednesday February 10th at the Hilton Union Square Continental Ballroom.

It quickly became a free for all with some surreal moments.

Over 450 Old Navy employees were surprised with a Team Building Challenge, in which each table of people needed to work together to build a bike. They were to employ the team building concept of ‘Step Up’ and ‘Step Back’, which reflect ones natural tendency to step up and take control, or step back and play the subordinate role. The idea was to have each person perform only one task so everyone would need to step up.

Not only did the Old Navy employees build the bikes, but they raised the $10,000 to purchased them as well. In total 120 low income and under served youth were gifted new knobby tired bicycles.

From a bike geeks perspective, this is where things got interesting. SF Urban Riders got a big shout out from  Playworks, introducing us as Quality Assurance, and then the group energizes in mass and storms to the back of the ballroom like it was the Amazing Race.  Lets just say the quality assurance came after the team building challenge was over. That is when the SFUR crew looked over every bike for fork & handlebar alignment, cable routing, tire pressure, and other sometimes comical issues one would expect from a massive group exercise.

The ultimate high came when the kids showed up to claim their  new rides. They were all from Cleveland Elementary in the Excelsior District and coincidentally real close to the proposed McLaren Park Bike Skills Area.

Now SF Urban Riders is working with the principal to follow up with more bike skills mentorship.

That is how it would work all the time in a perfect world.

Mark Your Calendar

Next Bike Build will be on Saturday April 24th and we can always use interested volunteers.:

More Details coming soon.