twin cities bike swap & "bridges of iowa"

my friend mark verhulst sent me the following email. mark's a great guy, one of those ames riders from the mid-80s to early 90s who would show up every day for the 500 pm brookside ride. i remember when he first appeared on the scene, he had a squeaky old bike, and although we all tried like hell to drop hi, we couldn't. mark later got a summer internship at trek, and would show up in the fall with a weird, plain black bike that was lighter than shit. wouldn't tell us anything about the details of its construction, which frustrated all the engineers who were also bikies. mark's been living in the twin cities for a number of years, and for the past few years, he's been in charge of the twin cities bike swap, held each february [sounds like they're moving to october this fall]. it's like the big one in colorado each year, but several hours closer and much cheaper. you really ought to check it out, whether to pick up some good stuff, or to spy on him to learn how to put on your own next year. it would be ice if we could get one here in des moines before the iowa city folks beat us to it. [if you haven't heard, the word on the street is that they might try to hold a swap meet in conjunction with jingle cross next year. maybe we should have one here in des moines before that?]

Hey Iowa guys, before I forget you should know (my) Twin Cities Bike Swap is coming up, Sunday February 10. The change in venue has caused us to get a late start on promotion and the location is not as central as I'd like so I'm thinking it will be a little smaller than last year. However, it's still a cool event that is well worth attending. Please let people down there know. See www.TwinCitiesBikeSwap.com for info. Next fall (October) it's looking like we are going to move to the State Fair grounds for our future swaps where we will likely throw in a cross race (and maybe an alley cat race too) for good measure.

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and speaking of good measure, i heard from some other good friends who have a great thing going on here in des moines, and they can always use our help.

pat and gabrielle coughlin run a place called "bridges of iowa", a small, private, not-for-profit substance abuse program in des moines. i've had the pleasure of working with these folks over the years, and they're good people doing a good thing for folks who really need the help, and who often don't get the help they need.

pat wrote the following:

"Please continue to keep me in mind if you ever run across individuals wanting to donate bicycles to a good cause.
My clients at Bridges of Iowa, Inc are always in need."

.....

there is contact information on their website. maybe rather than selling your old bike, you might want to consider making a contribution to the folks at bridges of iowa. you will actually help someone go far.