Jeffrey Taveras and Sammy Lopez, Recycle-A-Bicycle Lower East Side Retail Shop

Sammy and Jeffrey are psyched about the fun and useful experience they are accumulating by working at the Recycle-A-Bicycle lower east side retail store. Sammy comes in faithfully every Tuesday and Thursday and Jeffrey only on Tuesdays. They work directly alongside two master mechanics, Rich Pinto and Joe. They are learning everything there is to know about bicycle maintenance, repair, and assembly, with the exception of disc breaks and full suspension systems, which the shop does not deal with.

RAB is a 501c3 nonprofit that receives donated used bikes in order to refurbish them for sale to the public. The mission of the organization is to educate and train young people in the art of the bicycle. Sammy and Jeffrey fit perfectly into this mission and will have the opportunity to become paid RAB mechanics upon completion of their internship. Currently, the guys are mostly focused on basic repair tasks such as flat fixes, stripping, cleaning, and brake adjustment. They are learning to do the entire refurbishing process and will soon begin to build up their own bikes.

During the meeting with Rich and Joe, we talked about the need to stay on the ball with journal writing and school based assignments. I once again reminded Sammy and Jeffrey to submit their first coworker interview, which they were planning to conduct that afternoon. They also have yet to submit the initial outline for the research paper, which may mean the difference between passing and failing economics for the second semester. We all know these guys are extremely smart, let’s just hope Tuesday’s meeting was enough to get their behinds in GEAR. (bicycle pun, but all kidding aside, hand in the work guys!)