Charitable Giving
The Western Wheelers donates a significant portion of the Sequoia Century net revenues to non-profit organizations that benefit the cycling community and local communities at large. Many of our members also actively volunteer or are otherwise involved with related charity organizations. Here are some of the groups whom the Western Wheelers club and members support.
The Bike Exchange has facilities and programs to provide refurbished bicycles to the underprivileged. Volunteers repair/fix up these bikes and they are given to kids and adult who need wheels. Some of the donated bikes that are fundamentally sound enough that after cleaning and repair they are offered at a nominal cost to help cover the costs of the exchange. There are opportunities to volunteer as a bike mechanic, or in their front/back offices. Western Wheelers members frequently help repair bikes for this good cause. If you have worked on bikes, or if you would like to learn how to work on bikes, we would like to have your help. There are experts available to help out those who need it. Western Wheelers frequently help repair bikes for this good cause.
The Bike Exchange accepts donated bikes and bicycle parts, and is looking for volunteers to help assemble bicycles and otherwise help run their organization. You can purchase a bike from their shop, which also supports their operations.
Good Karma Bikes, San Jose. We reinvest the money we make in our full-service bike shop to employ people in recovery and to help their re-entry. We call this transitionary employment; people demonstrate that their recovery is on firm ground and they are ready to get back in the game. Western Wheelers members frequently help repair bikes for this good cause.
Good Karma Bikes accepts donated bikes and bicycle parts, and is looking for volunteers to help assemble bicycles and otherwise help with their operations.
Turning Wheels For Kids provides children with safe new bikes, helmets and locks to encourage lifelong habits of exercise, outdoor activity and independence. They accomplish this through their annual Big Bike Build, Corporate Bike Builds, and Bike Repair Clinics. Bikes are distributed to unhoused children, children in foster care, children in after-school programs, and children from low-income families across our community.
Western Wheelers members can donate to TWFK, and can also volunteer at the Big Bike Build in early December, where hundreds of volunteers from many clubs and companies come together to assemble a few thousand bikes. Members with good mechanical skills can also volunteer at the free Bike Repair Clinics that are offered throughout the year in various locations.
Live in Peace is a non-profit organization in East Palo Alto that supports local youth and young adults in envisioning a better future. One of the initiatives is their Bike Shop Program that provides affordable bike repairs, refurbishes donated bikes for resale, and offers vocational training to young men and women.
To support Live in Peace, you can donate bikes or parts (the shop strongly prefers working and serviceable bikes), participate in dedicated volunteer days twice a month on Mondays while experienced mechanics can volunteer other days they are open, or purchase a bike from the shop.
PAC Tour specializes in organizing and leading unforgettable bicycle tours throughout the United States and abroad. The organization also sponsors cycling projects in Peru and Ghana. Send them your gently used cycling clothing or gear and they will deliver the donations to cycling teams in Peru. They can find a use for any athletic gear you would like to donate, sending your gear directly to cyclists in Peru and Ghana, selling it and use the funds for charitable projects such as building a well for a remote Peruvian school (2024), or donating it to local cycling programs for youth in Wisconsin. See here for more detail.
Community Cycles of California Is a nonprofit bike shop Community Cycles of California is a non-profit workforce training program and bike shop located in San Jose. It's unique training program teaches transferable skills to those who face barriers to employment, preparing them for living-wage jobs and economic independence. The bike shop is the cornerstone of its educational and employment program, and contributes to the community through bicycle sales, services, and charitable programs.
Puente fosters wellness and prosperity in the San Mateo County South Coast communities of Pescadero, La Honda, Loma Mar, and San Gregorio by promoting and advocating for equitable access to education, health, and economic security.
Abundant Grace Coastside Worker envisions a day when all of our neighbors experiencing homelessness are housed, employed if possible, and in good mental and physical health as they pursue their own meaningful life. Their mission is to accompany the unhoused as they transform their lives through meaningful work. Their goals are to focus on Housing, Employment, Sobriety, Mental and Physical Health, Food Security
Abundant Grace organizes the Bike Hut Classic every summer. This is a self-run fundraiser ride up Tunitas Creek Road, with proceeds supporting Abundant Grace Coastside Worker's employment programs for the homeless community, including working on the farm behind The Bike Hut. Many Western Wheelers members participate in the Bike Hut Classic, with several posting it as a club ride.
The Bike Hut and Potrero Nuevo Farm. Potrero Nuevo Farm provides charitable works in partnership with Abundant Grace Coastside Worker. The Farm donates use of its land, harvest support, seed, use of farm equipment and other materials to Abundant Grace which feeds the low-income and homeless communities. Potrero Farms helps further the mission of Abundant Grace Coastside Worker and also the Farm’s mission of providing healthy produce to charity.
La Honda Volunteer Fire Brigade protects the lives, property, and environment within the La Honda community and surrounding areas served from fires, disasters, and emergency incidents. The Brigade performs this service through education, prevention, training, and emergency response.
Black Mountain Composite Mountain Bike Team is a composite team across Peninsula schools serving grades 6-12. Coach Christine Wiesendanger gladly accepts gently used cycling apparel, and distributes to NICA students and coaches. The team serves a wide range of student athletes. By up-cycling jerseys and shorts, it helps everyone - especially as the kids are growing.
The Stanford Blood Center The hospitals that the Stanford Blood Center serve need a constant supply of blood products, particularly for preemies, cancer treatments, and complicated transplants. A liver transplant, for example, sometimes requires 40 or more units of blood. Stanford Blood Center is honored that the Western Wheelers have supported local patients by giving blood as a group since 2012. You are an important part of a life-saving team, so come out and join your fellow Wheelers at the Hillview Center. Refer to the Western Wheelers Events Calendar for the next scheduled Western Wheelers Blood Drive day.
Cycling Advocacy
The Western Wheelers is foremost a social biking club. We do support some cycling advocacy, and many of our members are actively engaged in efforts to promote safer streets for cyclists and pedestrians, and to build out more cycling infrastructure. Here are the most prominent cycling advocacy organizations our club and members are involved with, some of which receive club donations.
SVBC is a non-profit whose mission is to promote increased/everyday cycling in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties as a central solution to the environmental, health, and social problems facing our planet. The Western Wheelers is proud to support, and regularly donate to, SVBC. We encourage Western Wheelers members to join SVBC. Please consider joining one of the local teams, which are an opportunity to advance the interest of cyclists at the community level. Click on your local team, and then click “ask to join group” on the Google group page.
Walk Bike Cupertino is a non-profit safety/advocacy group. Begun in 2014, the “WalkBikeCupertino group works with the Cupertino City Council, the Bicycle/Pedestrian group and various other civic groups. From safe routes to school to identifying bike/pedestrian projects to communicating needs at the Cupertino Bike Commissions meetings, this group promoted being and walking in Cupertino.
Sunnyvale Safe Streets is a team of volunteers dedicated to making Sunnyvale a safe and welcoming place for biking and walking advocates for better bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in Sunnyvale. Their website has interesting articles about local cycling issues, and information on how to sign up to volunteer.
Great Streets Mountain View is a non-profit working towards people-friendly streets that are safe, accessible to all, and beautiful public spaces. They strive to: plan and implement complete street designs for all ages, so everyone can walk and bike safely; incorporate beautiful public space as a functional element of our streets; and promote transportation improvements that improve healthy and more active living.
The California Association of Bicycling Organizations was formed In 1972 to create a single federation of California's bicycle clubs organized into a single federation called . CABO lobbies to protect bicyclists' interests statewide and to encourage, maintain, and improve bicycling conditions. Volunteers represent the interests of cyclists before the appropriate governmental bodies to protect their rights and promote laws, policies, and actions that treat cyclists equitably.