Har Har, Mateys! Pirates, Babies, Bikes

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This is a story - a story about babies and some bike-safety pirates from PN2K who were looking for children to put on a bike safety education show at MIT so they could learn the rules of the road. They kidnapped a few kids.

We're just kidding. No babies were kidnapped or harmed in the making of this event. However, at our event last Friday, "Pirates on Wheels!" from 2-5 PM at the MIT Student Center, there were more kids than usual - it's like we told the stork we were developing our youth kids bike safety education program and all of a sudden they arranged this huge delivery. Mommies and daddies of the world: if you need a bedtime story for your two-year old, swing by and grab one of our Bike Safety & Me kids books, absolutely free. Take a picture and place it on the inside of the back cover, just like so (see Yaoming's iPhone photo to the right. We give him major creative points for thinking of this). 

As always we had excellent volunteers. John helped to run the "learn to change your flat tire" repair station (nothing like a bit of DIY). Nick took care of helping cyclists register their bikes with MIT PTO using the registration forms. We also pulled in Kwinsi -- Excitingly, it was his first time volunteering. 

Our excellent organizing team with Dingfang, Yaoming, Will, and Tian also helped to run the show -- Dingfang helped checked in everyone who came on our registration iPad. PN2K had Planet Bike lights that were sold for a subsidized $15/set. This time, our helmet orders were purchased through our online system (PN2K helmets click here), as well as our high-viz T-shirts, which were half off with a purchase of PN2K membership. (Learn more by visiting the links under "Keep Calm & Shop On" in the footer section of PN2K.org). We were also glad to welcome back some familiar faces (Mr. Goldmann from our SidPac culture coffee hour video), and meet new ones.

Upcoming dates - check our calendar under "Events" but here's a preview:

  • Meeting: Fri, 10/16 @ 6-7 PM in 1-132
    Come for a study break, enjoy snacks, and meet the MIT PN2K community. Learn about our next events and join as a prospective officer, join a committee, volunteer, come on a bike ride.
  • Bike Ride Social: Fri, 10/23: Details TBA (determined at our Fri 10/16 meeting. Check back later). *Update: We will be meeting and leaving the MIT Student Center at 5:00 PM to go Goodwill hunting for Halloween costumes and local shops (REI? etc.) for winter cycling gear like ski gloves, beanies, etc. to keep warm. See you there! 
  • Bike Ride: Sat, 10/31 @ 6:30 PM at the MIT Student Center front steps -- MIT convoy to Copley Square for the annual Boston Halloween Bike Ride!
  • Next bike event: Sun, 11/8 @ 2-5 PM in the MIT Johnson Lobby (Z Center Building W35) *Please note the venue change.

Keep Calm & Pedal On!

OctPN2K-73

(Back: Nick, John, Kwinsi, Ye, Roy, Ari. Front: Dingfang, Tian, Yaoming, Will) 

Thank you, Bike Boom, for being awesome and making some really messed-up bikes safer. These guys are great - they're also in Davis Square (check them out here). If you need more serious repairs, we'd recommend purchasing one of our PN2K memberships ($25 online, $10 for students offline) and then you'll have the 50% of $70 complete tune-ups anytime in the year when you visit Bike Boom as well as other benefits.

And now, for your viewing pleasure (and to satiate your recommended dose of daily cuteness):

Check out the full event album on Facebook. All photo creds to Dingfang Zhou and Yaoming Duan