Building Community, One Bike at a Time
Heather Hamilton-Post
11/10/2025
“It is a really special day where the community is here for the right reasons, in support of one another”
It’s a chilly December morning in Boise, and the street outside the Boise Bicycle Project is alive, kids and families eagerly awaiting the big reveal. What started with a wrench and a worn-out bike is about to blossom into something more — glitter and lightning bolts, tassels and tiny stuffed animals zip tied to the handlebars. This is literally the stuff that dreams are made of.
Earlier in the fall, hundreds of kids drew their “dream bikes” — sketches filled with rainbows, rockets, and impossible inventions — and volunteers at the BBP spent the following weeks bringing those dreams to life as part of the annual Holiday Kids Bike Giveaway. Unsurprisingly, the dream bikes are as different as the children who draw them.[KW1] Executive Director Devin McComas noted that Spider Man is always a popular one, but that the sky is kind of the limit — they once gave away a bike with a roof, two baskets, and red flames on the side. Some are incredibly specific, but McComas said that the community usually shows up to make it happen. “It’s pretty exceptional,” he said.
But the bikes these families are about to see, which occupy every available inch of the warehouse, have a story that begins before they even meet their riders.
The BBP employs 16 people, but it takes far more to move their mission forward, which is where the volunteers come in — over 800 each year. Founded in 2007, they have grown from a small volunteer-run repair shop into a community hub. “We’re all about the bicycle; we know how many opportunities it brings,” explained McComas. “It’s also not about the bike. It’s about the community around the bike. Sometimes I say that we’re a bike shop masquerading as a community center. Other times, we’re a community center masquerading as a bike shop.”
The BBP is a nonprofit that acts as a bicycle co-op, which means that they help people fix their own bicycles — over 1,000 per year. They also sell refurbished equipment and run a variety of programming that ensures access to bicycles, including a traveling bicycle trailer with tools, tubes, tires, and volunteers who pop up around town to offer mobile help. “We know that, if a bicycle is broken, it can be hard to make it out to our shop, so we’re in the community too,” said McComas.
But the BBP isn’t just about fixing gears and tuning breaks — they’re creating access and empowering people in the Treasure Valley to get moving. Over the years, they’ve given away bikes, hosted free repair workshops, and launched outreach programs that bring bikes and bike services to schools, correctional facilities, and neighborhood events. Their programming also includes advocacy for safe streets so that riders feel comfortable on the road. Each effort supports their central mission, which is to make sure that everyone, regardless of income or circumstance, can experience the joy and freedom that a bicycle can bring.
Ideally, this means that riders learn to make their own fixes, a move supported by the BBP’s after school, peer-led classes. For some of the children who receive a bike either through the holiday giveaway or another initiative, it kicks off a lifetime of involvement with both bicycles and as a volunteer with the BBP. “We’re 18 years in, so we’ve seen someone show up with a truck full of bikes and say, hey, you know what? I got a bicycle from you guys when I was ten, and it meant the world to me. And I’m getting all the bikes from my neighborhood and bringing them down here,” McComas said.
In 2007, the program gave bikes to 50 kids. Last year, that number had grown to over 650 kids and families. Working with direct service organizations, the the BBP identifies young people for whom a bicycle could be life changing. He explained that once they’ve got dream bike drawings in hand, the real work starts. “We have volunteers around the clock, calling families, interpreting, decorating the bikes, and running the event. They bake thousands of cookies, help get bikes home, everything,” he said.
By the time giveaway day arrives, the BBP’s warehouse feels a lot like Santa’s workshop, volunteers passing out snacks, checking tires, and handing over bikes to the very kids who designed them in crayon months earlier, painted and pieced together by the strangers who made them real. After receiving their bikes, the recipients also participate in a safety course, run by women from the Shifting Gears program, which allows adults in custody to earn a bicycle through meaningful service. It is a portrait of Boise at its best — creative, generous, and united.
“The bike is the reason we get the family here, but then we make sure they have a hot drink. We partner with organizations so that we have a clothes pantry with jackets and gloves and hats. There’s a food pantry to help lighten the load during the holidays. It’s all about the bike, and it’s not about the bike. It’s a community coming together and saying, ‘you are welcome here, and we have enough,’” said McComas.
By the end of the day, the warehouse is considerably emptier, the bikes gone to their new homes — but what remains is momentum, spinning forward into the BBP’s other programs, which begin again in the morning.
“It is a really special day where the community is here for the right reasons, in support of one another,” said McComas. “I love watching people show up as their best selves for one another. Everyone is welcome and all bikes belong.”
Call Out:
To get involved with the Holiday Kids Bike Giveaway, community members can donate bicycles of all sizes leading up to the event, volunteer (no bike repair skills needed), and make donations, which are essential in powering the event. Dream bikes are available for adoption beginning December 1.
Find out more at boisebicycleproject.org/holiday-kids-bike-giveaway.
