We would like to shout out a warm welcome to the City’s newest community bikeshop: The Winnipeg Repair Education and Cycling Hub – The WRENCH!
Green Action Centre was excited to tour the WRENCH’s highly anticipated workshop open house this past Thursday for the official ‘chain breaking’ ceremony! Their workshop located at 1057 Logan Avenue is already filled with excitement and eager young people learning to repair bikes to ride once again!
What is the WRENCH?
The WRENCH is a non-profit that makes bikes and knowledge of bicycle repair and maintenance accessible to all. Supporting both schools and community bike shops, the WRENCH provides an important mix of programming, education, and resources to community members, various youth groups, and other non-profit organizations.
The WRENCH has two passionate and dedicated full-time staff members Cara Fisher and Geoff Heath. Cara and Geoff run workshops, and work to support other community bike shops by providing training to volunteers and managing the distribution of recovered, repaired bikes (this includes bikes recovered from the Brady Landfill).
Walking around their workshop, it is easy to see that A LOT of volunteer effort, hard work, and creativity was put into building and organizing their workspace. With eight bike repair work stations, a wide assortment of assorted recycled bike parts, and a lounge area – there is sure to be a lot of great lessons that happen here.
Green Action Centre and the WRENCH
Green Action Centre is thrilled to be a part of this organizations efforts and having such similar mandates, it was a natural fit for us to partner with the WRENCH. As a planning partner and board member, Green Action Centre will support the WRENCH to accomplish these important goals in our city:
- Empower youth and other community members through mentorship, building life skills, self confidence and independence
- Build the capacity and increase the number of bike mechanics and volunteers in Winnipeg
- Encourage respect for and preservation of the natural environment by fostering a culture of repair and re-use
- Create progressive and safe spaces for marginalized and other cyclists to learn in environments free from violence, sexism, racism, classism or homophobia
- Operate the organization transparently and non-hierarchically
- Celebrate creativity and nurture a pedal-empowered community
Visit The WRENCH to learn how you can get involved by volunteering, or with any of the programming they offer. Welcome to Winnipeg!!!
I had a great experience at the Wrench shop at the Forks today. The staff were amazing at helping me clean my bike and replace the chain. The cost was only $14 which was also amazing. I’ll certainly recommend the Wrench to other people and go back when I need some more help.