Green Bay community members show support at 10th annual Bike Banquet

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - Over 100 people came out to support Green Bay Bicycle Collective’s 10th annual Bike Banquet, a non-profit group that specializes in bicycle education, encouragement and advocacy.

Organizers said they were blown away with the amount of community support seen at their biggest fundraising event and membership drive for the year. They say the turn out during Sunday’s event was above and beyond their expectations, especially after last year’s event was canceled due to the pandemic.

“To see this, to see everybody just having a good time. There’s not one person here that doesn’t have a smile on their face, and that’s, that’s the goal. I expected a good turn out, but this is bigger than I imagined,” said Michael Johnson, Program Coordinator, Green Bay Bicycle Collective.

The fundraising event helps them to pay for bike rodeos, where they teach bicycling safety to young kids, as well as their youth “earn a bike” program.

“It’s a great program where, you know, kids that normally wouldn’t get a chance to work in like a shop environment, work with their hands, that type of thing, work with other people. They get to come in and get taught these skills and these are skills that they get to bring with them forever,” said Mark Woosencraft, Co-founder and Vice President, Green Bay Bicycle Collective.

“And for skills learned and hours worked, they receive credits towards either a new bike for themselves, or parts and pieces for their current bikes,” said Johnson.

Sunday’s event outside of the Collective’s shop in Green Bay, was filled with food trucks, craft beer from Hinterland Brewery, bounce houses for kids, live music, bucket raffles and 50/50 raffles.

“The nice thing about the Collective here is, you know, it’s a safe space for people to work on their own bikes, we’re not like a full repair shop so we offer this space, like ‘hey come on in, if you have a problem, we’ll teach you how to fix it,’” said Woosencraft.

This year’s Bike Banquet was the first time it has been hosted on the premises of their shop at 418 4th St. in Green Bay, which has been open for four years now.

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