OGDEN -- A leading distributor to the cycling and outdoor industries that plans to build an 85,000-square-foot facility in Ogden next year is giving $10,000 to a nonprofit organization to promote bicycles for transportation and recreation.
The Ogden Bicycle Collective, 2404 Wall Ave., will use the donation from Quality Bicycle Products, based in Bloomington, Minn., and matching funds from the Utah Conservation Corp. and Utah State University to hire a full-time administrator.
"It's an incredible amount of money," Josh Jones, who helped establish the Ogden Bike Collective in May, said Monday regarding the QBP donation.
"To have an infusion of cash into the organization is enormous."
The collective hopes to have an administrator in place after the first of the year to oversee fundraising and community outreach programs, said Jones, who is employed by the city as a geographic information systems project coordinator.
Adding an administrator also will enable the collective to maintain consistent hours of operation and a stable business presence in the community, he said.
The collective, which teaches people to fix bikes and promotes cycling as a fun and environmentally friendly form of transportation, currently operates from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays.
The organization is housed in donated space within a building belonging to Dave Goode, owner of Goode Skis.
Using funds from QBP and other sources, the collective plans to launch an ambitious slate of initiatives. Partnering with Weber State University and the city, it hopes to establish a community bike-lending program modeled after the Fort Collins Bike Library in Colorado.
The collective plans to establish a local chapter of Trips for Kids, a national organization that enrolls at-risk youth in bicycling through mountain bike rides, Earn-A-Bike programs and other incentives. Additionally, the collective will offer bike safety training.
Steve Flagg, president and founder of QBP, said his company is proud to provide financial support to the collective.
"Wherever we have employees and a presence in a community, we want to be part of the bicycle culture and give back to the community," Flagg said in a prepared statement. "The Ogden Bicycle Collective not only leverages our donation but also adds a Trips for Kids chapter in an area that has not had one."
QBP plans to build a distribution facility on adjoining parcels owned separately by the city and Ogden City School District off 12th Street east of the Ogden Nature Center, Richard McConkie, the city's deputy director of community and economic development, has said.
Construction on the building is expected to begin in the spring and wrap up next November.
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