GEAR UP Scholarcycles student Dagar Yammue, age 14 inflates a tire to the proper pressure, guided by NBW Youth Assistant Mustafa Abdul Rashid. Back to the camera on right: Andrew Dyson Neighborhood Bike Works Program Coordinator. Photo by Gregory King, Bikes-in Haddington Project coordinator.

Neighborhood Bike Works, Located at 3916 Locust Walk, teaches bicycle mechanics, repair and safe cycling to youth, ages 8-17. primarily in West Philadelphia, using old bicycles donated by the community. Kids have the opportunity to earn their own bicycles and acquire job-related skills. It actively promotes cycling as an environmentally friendly healthy, alternative form of transportation. All the youth participating in Neighborhood Bike Works are expected, at minimum, to complete a bike repair and safety course. Each earns a bicycle, a helmet, and a lock on completion of the course and working in the workshop.

At the YMCA Health Fair, specially trained Neighborhood Bike Works youngsters systematically checked bicycles, providing the owners each with a diagnostic list of parts to be fixed or adjusted. The youth were able to also perform some r repairs and adjustments. The owners thanked the students, and, some made a contribution for the services! By popular demand, Neighborhood Bike Works has scheduled additional Bike Safety Checks in West Philadelphia for the public at the following dates and locations:

• Saturday, May 5, at the Health Fair 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Broad and Tioga in cooperation with the Temple Children's Medical Center.
  
• Saturday, May 12, 10 a.m. to I p.m. at the Sayre School, 58th and Walnut, in conjunction with a Bicycle Derby sponsored by the Injury Free Coalition for Kids of Philadelphia
  
• Friday, May 18, 6-9 p.m. at the Men's Health Night Out 3t the Greater St. Matthew s Independent Church, 5544 Race St.
  
• Saturday, June 16, 12-4 p.m. at the Abundant Life Healing Fellowship Church Health Fair. 100 North 63rd Street.
  
• Saturday, July 7, and Saturday August 4 on West River Drive - exact time, location to be announced.

Neighborhood Bike Works kids will be performing bicycle safety checks in other areas of the city as well.

Also, partnering with R.E.I., they will also be providing technical support for the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia's Freedom Valley Bike Ride (June 3); and at the M.S. 150 (Cherry Hill to Ocean City) ride September 22-23.

Due to funding requirements, all incoming participants must qualify to be in the Bikes-in-Haddington project or in the CEAR UP program at the Lea School. For Neighborhood Bike Works' Bikes-in-Haddington project, youth must be 10 to 14 years old to start, and live in Haddington: (north of Market, west of 52nd, and south of Girard).

For more information on Bikes-in-Haddington, contact Gregory King, Bikes-in-Haddington Project Coordinator at 215-467-6576.

For GEAR UP, the students must be in the 7th or 8th grade at Lea School (47th and Spruce Streets). For more information about Neighborhood Bike Works' GEAR UP project (called Scholarcycles), contact Claudia Crane, Executive Director or Andrew Dyson, Program Coordinator, at 215-386-0316. Please call the same number if you are interested in making a donation (such as volunteer time, money, a bicycle, or tools) to Neighborhood Bike Works. EmaiI: neighbike@earthlink.net; www.neighborhoodbikeworks.org.

GEAR UP/ Scholarcycles receives federal funding through Philadelphia Education Fund. The Bikes-in-Haddington Project, part of the Haddington-wide Youth Opportunities Initiative, is funded by the William Penn Foundation.