Second year of smiles

Cranksgiving started in NYC and now is held in over 70 cities – it’s a food-drive scavenger hunt on bikes. This is the second one in Portland benefiting Outside In, who have been helping Portlanders for over 40 years.

Thirty-one teams

• Thirty-one teams brought back $1878 (!) worth of food and supplies for Outside In.
• Dave’s Killer Bread donated 140 loaves: Retail value $700
• Bikes for Humanity PDX gave nine donated bikes and nine mechanic courses, valued at $1800 total.

We are the winning winners, who won!

Seattle got out 105 people, and we got out…113! Tom from excellent Seattle Bike Blog is shipping us the Top Banana trophy in a special temperature controlled, golden envelope and says they will not rest until it is back in their possession. Time to put the hammer down while we’re in the lead!

The crew came through

Laura Recker and I had lots of help again this year: Meghan Sinnott (emcee, pet therapy), Alma Frankenstein (tea and toast), Ashley Thirtyseven (banner, math), Halley Weaver (clothes donations), and lots of high-priced consulting and exhaustive public polling from Jessica Caldwell, Diane Soik, Charlie Burnham, Todd Yoder, Angie Derr and Peter Newell.

Photos

Once again, Mick Orlosky captured the spirit of the event in a series of vivid snaps.

The ride

• Outside In said the bike patch kits were a big hit with their clients last year, so we made sure to include them again on the manifest – Western Bikeworks donated the patch kits, as well as two gift certificates.
• Velo Cult treated everyone like family – love that place. They also had a team out riding, along with a team from Joe Bike. Hoping to get a lot more shops involved next year. A lot more teams in costume this year.
• In the coming weeks I’ll be talking to organizers in NYC and other cities to see what’s working best

The prizes

First Ones Back, Best Costume, and Biggest Spending team members got prizes. Loved that we had awesome bike-related prizes from Chrome, Sellwood Cycle Repair, Metrofiets, Clever Cycles, Kryptonite,Filmed by Bike, CED Magic, Bikes for Humanity PDX…and also generous prize donations from outside the bike bubble: People’s Food Co-op, Sammy’s Flowers and Float On.

Feelings

• I know some people don’t like it when bicyclists are all lumped together and referred to as “the bike community,” which I understand, but Laura and I and many others feel that deep down there is a common bond among all the different kinds of bike riders, and I love that this event brings together many different bicycle subcultures – looking to broaden the event even more next year. Such a great feeling to see bike lovers of all kinds milling around the table at the end, looking at the huge pile of food and supplies they contributed.
• Afterwards I got home, unpacked the Burly trailer, took a bath…and had one of those moments where I felt truly grateful to have a home to come back to at the end of a long day. Thankful for places like Outside In that are looking out for the homeless, and to Portland for supporting them.
• This is the 4th of 18 rides I’m helping to organize and promote, through Puddlecycle, and my dream is that every Cranksgiving team will evolve into a bike club and host rides all year long, to help bring the joy of social biking to the rest of Portland.

These true believers generously donated prizes and other donatables in 2014 – click images to find out more!