GPC Donations

Every year, the Grizzly Peak Cyclists makes donations out of proceeds raised by our Century to non-profit organizations which promote or help bicycling in some way — be it advocacy, safety, education, awareness, youth biking, or the bicycling environment. This is consistent with our objectives as stated in our Bylaws (Article III): “to provide cyclists with a variety of challenging bicycle-riding experiences and to promote safe bicycle riding and touring.”

The procedure for deciding which groups receive funds, and how much, is explained on the donations procedure page. For each recipient organization, a GPC member is designated as GPC Liaison. Here is a list of our GPC Liaisons.

Here are the GPC donations in recent years. Links are provided for those organizations or causes which have web sites; short explanations are given for those which do not.

¹ The Missing Link Bike Cooperative, in Berkeley, provides a free community resource: Loaner tools and a public space for people to work on their own bikes. It is a popular service. Our donation is used to help replace tools which wear out.

² Our total donations in 2011 were $2000 less than in 2010, largely because our century revenues in 2011 were many thousands less than in 2010.

¹ (Noted, 2011). BFBC underwent a period of transition between 2009 and 2011. At their own request, we made no donation to them in 2009 nor in 2011. Starting in 2011 it appears that BFBC will use EBBC as its fiscal sponsor, and they requested that we make a larger donation to EBBC instead.

¹ Albany Strollers & Rollers, founded in 2004, advocates for better bicycle and pedestrian facilities in the City of Albany with particular emphasis on Bay Trail access issues. A detailed article about them appeared in the August 2008 Wheel Truth, page 11. Another article appeared in the November 2009 Wheel Truth, page 4.

² Butters Canyon Conservancy was formerly known as Butters Land Trust. They changed their name in 2009(?).

³ The City of Berkeley Injury Prevention Program (IPP) (part of the Public Health Department) runs a Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Project. They organize bicycle safety workshops at schools and at the annual Berkeley Family Festival & Bike Rodeo. In the past, every child who participated received a free bicycle helmet. However, government budget cuts in 2009 mean there are no funds for bike helmets this year. They will use the GPC donation to purchase (deeply discounted) youth bicycle helmets.

¹ Through 2004, GPC donated equally to CABO and CBC. For 2005 and 2006, CABO incurred extra legal fees pursuing the Prokop case, through which they hoped to establish that cities and government agencies are responsible to maintain bicycle paths in safe condition — current case law says there is no such government responsibility. CABO also gave GPC helpful legal insights when dealing with municipalities regarding our Century. For these reasons, in 2005 and 2006 GPC donated extra to CABO.

² Point Reyes Station is a popular destination and lunch spot for many cyclists and many GPC rides. One of the benches near the bike racks in the vacant lot next to the Bovine Bakery is in complete disrepair. Mark Sapiro offered to coordinate installing a replacement bench, with a "donated by Grizzly Peak Cyclists" plaque. He is in contact with the property owners and users there. At the time of the donation, we did not know how much money was needed, so we allocated $400 with the proviso that any funds left over from the $400 will be redirected by GPC for donation to other causes.
   Update, June 2007:  Mark Sapiro purchased and installed the donated bench in Point Reyes Station. The total cost was $140. We have yet to decide what to do with the remaining $260 allocated.
   Update, August 2008:  Regarding the remaining $260, see note 4 below.

³ The Nicasio portapotty is regularly used by bicyclists and our own club rides. The amount would be used to help pay for its costs. Phil Morton is investigating. If the funds are not used for this purpose, they will be redirected by GPC for donation to other causes.    Update, February 2008:  Phil Morton investigated, and by summer 2007 he had determined that the portapotties were maintained by the Marin County Department of Parks and Open Space. We paid the donation to that Dept in February 2008. (The wheels of GPC bureaucracy sometimes turn slowly!)

⁴ In 2006 we allocated $400 for the Point Reyes Station benches (see note 2 above), out of a TOTAL $9500 formally allocated for 2006 donations. However only $140 was needed for those benches. At the donation committee meeting in 2008, we decided to consider that leftover $260 as part of the 2008 donations, and to retroactively consider the total amount donated in 2006 to be $9240.

¹ The Tinkers Workshop Bicycle Program was located in Berkely at Aquatic Park. Tinkers also ran after-school bicycle programs at Longfellow and King Middle Schools similar to the Cycles of Change programs. Students could build themselves a bicycle from recycled parts; they got to keep the bicycle after it was built. Additionally, Tinkers offered weekend rides to teach children street cycling skills. Tinkers Workshop has a web site, but it made minimal mention of their bicycle program. This program was discontinued in 2006 after personnel changes at Tinkers.

¹ BETR, Bicycle Education Training & Repair, is a program of the Richmond Police Athletic League to help Richmond youngsters through working with bikes and participating in BMX activities.

* Denotes a community project presented at the August 2001 club meeting. See notes for year 2000.

* Denotes community projects presented at the August 2001 club meeting. See notes for year 2000.

¹ The Solano Bicycle Classic is a USCF-sanctioned four-day stage race put on by a very small group of volunteers which attracts top national and international cyclists and teams. It needs support in its third year to establish it as an ongoing and important event early in the US cycling season.

² The Berkeley I-80 bicycle-pedestrian overcrossing, currently under construction and prominently visible from the freeway, is expected to carry a large amount of bike and ped traffic between west Berkeley and the Marina - Bay Trail - Eastshore Park area. The amenity provided could be on the bridge itself or at the touchdown plaza. Possibilities include: one or more benches, a water fountain, an information kiosk, an interpretive sign, an art installation. This will be decided in consultation between GPC representatives and city staff during the city's amenities planning phase. The $1000 listed here, a part of our CY2001 donation cycle, is in addition to the $1000 approved in August 2001 as part of our CY2000 donation cycle, for a total of $2000 for this project.
   Update, August 2005:  The City of Berkeley's design of these amenities has suffered repeated delays. GPC retains the $2000 earmarked for this project and will donate it as agreed, but not until the City's design reaches a point that a specific amenity can be identified. The City of Berkeley contact for this project is Deborah Chernin <DChernin at ci dot berkeley dot ca dot us> and the GPC contact is Mark Abrahams.

³ BAYSTEP, the Bay Area Sustainable Transportation Education Project, promotes utility bicycling. They applied for funds to help produce a Shop-by-Bike brochure.
   Update, August 2005:  BAYSTEP apparently has ceased to exist.

¹ The San Antonio Valley is a remote area south of Livermore and east of Mt. Hamilton. Their Fire Dept needed to replace their only fire truck, which was over 30 years old. Area residents were donating 60% of the cost and soliciting donations to cover the rest. Because GPC often rides through this wonderful area, and on occasion has had to use their emergency services, it was deemed appropriate to contribute.

* Community Projects Using CY2000 Funds Presented at the August 2001 Meeting
In the CY2000 donation cycle, the club decided to set aside $2000 of its donation funds to be used for a larger community project. It took several months to design and carry out a process for determining which community project(s) to fund. Jim Rosenau took charge of this task and did an excellent job. At the August 2001 club meeting, six separate proposals were presented. The club decided to award two of them $1000 each: BORP for a three-wheel bicycle for used by disabled youth, and the Berkeley I-80 bike-ped overcrossing amenity. But ultimately, the remaining projects all received funding: most from the CY2001 donation cycle and one from the CY2002 cycle. (One of the proposals was from EBBC, to help with its new edition of the East-of-the-Hills map. EBBC was never awarded funds for this specific proposal, but it has received increasingly large unrestricted donations every year.)

This page is maintained by Mark Abrahams <webminion at Grizz dot org>.
Comments welcome. If you discover errors, please let me know.