St. George Bicycle Collective Rolls On

Former Student Project Is Now Major Community Asset

By Marianne Hamilton

1,469 bicycles given to those in need.

5,365 bikes received.

57.45 tons of recyclables kept out of landfills.

These 2021 statistics demonstrate the dramatic impact of the St. George Bicycle Collective on the southern Utah community. Since its founding in 2016, the nonprofit has enjoyed a skyrocketing record of success—one that shows no signs of switching gears.

The Bicycle Collective began as a senior project for a Southern Utah University undergrad named Dannielle Larkin. now known to locals as a St. George City Council member and a former city planning commissioner. In 2015, Larkin was finishing up a double major in anthropology and sociology. At the time, SUU required all prospective graduates to complete a year-long Education Designed to Give Experience (EDGE) project in which students were required to demonstrate a real-world application of concepts learned in the classroom.

Dannielle Larkin

An avid cyclist, Larkin had been intrigued by the trend of “bike kitchens” springing up in the U.S. During a visit to the facility in Colorado (where her brother lived), Larkin—who had volunteered at the St. George community soup kitchen run by Grace Episcopal Church—realized that a bike kitchen might help those lacking transportation to become more self-sufficient.

“The idea with bike kitchens was that you’d go in and work on your bike, and you’d also learn how to fix bikes,” Larkin explained. “It made sense that we could do something similar on-site at the soup kitchen and also at Switchpoint. People who came to both places often either had no transportation or they had bikes that were in disrepair. I thought if we could hit both places once a week, we could find people who needed help.”

In short order, Larkin set up meetings with faith leaders, Switchpoint administrators, local bicycle retailers and mechanics, the Southern Utah Bicycle Alliance, Bike Utah, local police and fire departments, and countless other governmental agencies and interested parties, all of whom were highly enthusiastic about the project. Larkin successfully lobbied local bike shops to donate used bicycles and any parts that could be reused in refurbishing bikes. The police departments in St. George and Hurricane also answered the call, contributing bicycles that had been reported missing or stolen but eventually were unclaimed.

“The bike donations started to roll in almost immediately,” said Larkin. “The bike shops were more than generous. My mechanically-minded friends were on board to share their skills and knowledge as well. With everyone’s help, we started fixing up bikes and had two of them looking like new and ready to give away at the soup kitchen on Christmas day, 2015.”

Recalling the Bike Kitchen’s instant success, Larkin added, “The people at the soup kitchen and Switchpoint were so happy to have someone helping them with their bikes and equally thrilled to know their need for transportation was being acknowledged. It was a truly fulfilling endeavor and one I didn’t want to see go away when my project ended.”

By the time Larkin graduated in 2016, the new organization had added the three volunteers she considered pivotal to its success; Jack Moran, Ray Olsen and Bud Flowers had been teaching bicycle maintenance classes through Utah Tech’s Institute for Continued Learning (ICL) program and were eager to lend their expertise to the Bike Kitchen.

Said Moran, who still volunteers regularly, “We teach people how to take bikes apart. They get to know whether the chains and pedals are salvageable, if the bike has solid bearings and so forth, and how to do basic maintenance. We do a lot of work with the schools as well, finding kids who need bikes to get to and from school, getting them outfitted with bikes and helmets, and doing safety checks for them.”

In 2016, Davey Davis of the Salt Lake City Bike Collective offered to extend SLCBC’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit status to the nascent organization and even provide some seed funds. The caveat: Larkin had to find a building to house the Bike Kitchen’s operation. At the time, its “headquarters” was in the offices of L&L Mechanical Contractors, Inc., the fifty-year-old commercial HVAC firm that Larkin and her husband Darrin had run since 2007. Larkin credited former St. George City Attorney Shawn Guzman and the late City Councilmember Joe Bowcutt with suggesting that the shuttered Trafalgar Restaurant on St. George Boulevard might be suitable.

“I’d been looking for over a year, basically begging every realtor in town to let us have the grungiest, nastiest property they had available; as long as it had a roof, we figured we could make it work,” Larkin said, laughing. “Shawn and Joe set up a walkthrough at the old restaurant…and while it was definitely smelly, it had great visibility. So we slapped a coat of white paint over the bugs and grease, built six workbenches, and hung out a sign with a logo my brother designed, and we were ready for business.”

Today, the St. George Bicycle Collective is housed in its permanent headquarters on Bluff Street (the Boulevard site was demolished this year). On any given day, the shop thrums with the sound of volunteers spinning lovingly lubed chains and wheels, completing repairs, and proudly handing refurbished bikes to their new owners. Indeed, one of the Bicycle Collective’s most popular offerings is its “work for trade” program wherein those who lack the funds needed to buy a bike can work at the shop in exchange for a set of wheels.

Michael Hernandez, director of both the St. George and Ogden Bicycle Collectives, said giving bikes to underserved kids is his top priority. “I grew up in a very poor part of the Twin Cities with a mom who was struggling, so I can relate to people who come in who need help; I was that kid,” Hernandez noted. “If someone agrees to work here, it’s worth $10 an hour. So after just six hours, that person can leave on a rideable bike or get a bike for their child. It’s especially nice to be a part of something that benefits kids and gives them a reason to smile.”

Reflecting on what began as a wild idea some seven years ago, Larkin says the best part of the Bicycle Collective legacy is that it continues without her. “When you’re starting a nonprofit, the goal should always be for them to not need you anymore. When I walk in now and see people working in a bright, cheery space that we put millions of hours into, it’s the coolest feeling…knowing I’m not needed anymore.”

More information about the St. George Bicycle Collective can be found at https://bicyclecollective.org.

About the Author

Marianne L. Hamilton is a veteran journalist and marketing writer whose work appears in regional and national publications. When not race walking, hiking, or teaching water aerobics, she is the past Board Chair of Art Around the Corner and the Special Events Manager for DOCUTAH. She and her husband, Doug, are also coadministrators of the St. George Wine Club and race directors for the Huntsman World Senior Games and National Senior Games. Marianne was crowned Ms. Senior Universe 2021- 2022 and is the Senior Pageants Group’s Senior Games Ambassador. She is a proud breast cancer survivor.