By Miguel Diaz, Contributing Writer ||
The Common Wheel, a Lancaster organization founded by resident Chris Caldwell, hopes to promote bicycle use and make Lancaster a more bike-friendly city. The idea for The Common Wheel came about when Caldwell learned of the community bike shop model to provide low-cost bikes to community members.
“[Caldwell] started working on the idea last October, and The Common Wheel was quickly born,” said Natalie Micozzi, business operations intern at The Common Wheel. “We started working on rehabbing the old pump-house in Reservoir Park in March and officially opened for business in July.”
The Common Wheel has two full-time staff members, and benefits greatly from the use of volunteers and interns to help the organization continuously grow.
“We need to recruit more volunteers to help us expand our reach in the community,” Micozzi said. “Social and traditional media have played a large role in our growth so far. We have also partnered with many groups to help grow awareness and are working on attending and hosting events throughout the community.”
The Common Wheel believes that bicycling can be a fun and rewarding experience and can also reduce a community’s carbon footprint.
“Our mission is to encourage bicycling in Lancaster by creating a fun, welcoming space where we provide access to hands-on education and tools to all members of the community,” Micozzi said. “Ultimately, our goal is to get more people on bikes, more often.”
First-year Miguel Diaz is a contributing writer. His email is mdiaz@fandm.edu.