(Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Trek Bicycle Corp has been a very welcome newcomer to Portland for three local nonprofit organizations. The bike industry behemoth purchased six Portland-area Bike Gallery stores back in January and re-opened them as Trek Bicycle Portland stores in mid-March.
To help support the local scene — and perhaps grease the skids of acceptance in a city often skeptical of national brands (especially one that faced public pressure last summer to cancel police bike contracts), Trek launched a “Change for Change” donation contest as soon as they opened.
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Between March 13th and April 4th, customers who showed up to stores were asked to donate to one of three cycling nonprofits: Northwest Trail Alliance (NWTA), The Street Trust, or Community Cycling Center (CCC). The one with the most donations would win $5,000 and the second and third-place winners would get $3,000 and $2,000 respectively.
The winner was NW Trail Alliance with $391 donated for a total haul of $5,391. The CCC was next with $294 and a $3,294 award. The Street Trust had $214 for a total donation of $2,214.
In a statement released by Trek today, NWTA Executive Director Bob Lessard said, “The $5,000 award will go a long way to support our programming to reach underserved communities in the Portland area. We thank Trek Bicycle and the community for supporting us to create recreation opportunities for mountain biking.”
CCC Communications Coordinator Cole Lalomia said, “Securing this additional funding means we can focus more on the work. Food deliveries for families facing food insecurity, no-cost repairs for low- or no-income folks who rely on their bikes for transportation, recycling tons and tons of metal, bike camps for at-risk youth, and getting more people on bikes!”
And Executive Director of The Street Trust Sarah Iannarone said, “We are excited to welcome Trek to Portland and happy that they’re going to be a partner with us in advocating for multimodal transportation options that prioritize safety, accessibility, equity, and climate justice in our region.”
Learn more about Trek’s new Portland stores on their website.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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So are these donations from Trek as a company, or just passing on the generosity of Trek’s customers? The way it’s written, it’s confusing.
I think you can back the Trek portion of the donation out of the donations to see the amount that customers donated/voted. Given the awards listed for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place are $5k, $3k, and $2k, it seems that customers gave $391 for NWTA, $291 to the CCC, and $214 to Street Trust. I think that makes sense.
Yes that is confusing the way I reported it Laura. Steve C is right. Trek donated the $10,000 on top of the customer donations which were $391, $291 and $214. I’ll make an edit to clarify.
Surprised me that The Street Trust would take the evil corporate money. Trek sold bikes to law enforcement. Horror! Shame! Evil! (Yes, this is sarcasm)
Trek has an annual revenue in the neighborhood of 1 billion usd. just sayin
Revenue does not equal profit. The goods they sell cost something, as do their employees.
This is one city in the US, so how many other cities has Trek done this in just this year? How many other charitable contributions have they given?
Lastly, it is not a bad idea for a manufacturer to have money in their coffers in times of economic downturns – it keeps their employees employed.
just sayin