The Vancouver Island chapter of the Veterans Motorcycle Club wants the community to know about the good work going on at Duncan’s U-Fix It BikeWorks and ArtWorks.
Members of the club, who are bikers that have served in the Canadian Armed Forces or the country’s allies, visited the U-Fix It BikeWorks and ArtWorks on Trunk Road earlier this month to present the 14-year-old program with a $350 donation.
U-Fix It BikeWorks and ArtWorks is an outreach program established by the Canadian Mental Health Association.
The program engages with local youth by promoting cycling, fitness and environmental awareness.
It provides space, tools, parts, art materials and adult role models in order to help young people fix bikes and create art to stimulate their imagination and build creative skills for the present and the future.
VMC spokesman Brian Lowe said the motorcycle club, which just recently moved its Vancouver Island headquarters from Ladysmith to Duncan, said the bikers wanted to give something back to the community.
The club also donated a $350 cheque to the Ladysmith Search and Rescue organization.
“We hold fundraisers so we can help out where we think it’s needed,” Lowe said while kids worked on art pieces all around him at the studio.
Biker Lloyd Rose said the VMC is impressed what what the Canadian Mental Health Association has achieved by teaching youth new skills at the U-Fix It BikeWorks and ArtWorks.
“A lot of people don’t even know this place exists, so we’re using this opportunity to draw attention to it,” he said.
Child and youth worker Cal Hosie said donations like that given by the VMC are what keeps operations going at the studio.
He said U-Fix It BikeWorks and ArtWorks receives core funding from the province, but supplies, tools and food are typically bought through donations.
“We would have little to work with without support from the community,” Hosie said.
robert.barron@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
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