By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
THREE RIVERS — A local nonprofit in Three Rivers was recently the recipient of a $50,000 grant from a national wireless company for an upcoming community project.
On Thursday, June 20, T-Mobile announced that The Huss Project was a recipient of one of their Hometown Grants, which provides funding to local development projects that enhance rural communities across the United States.
The $50,000 will go toward an upcoming community bicycle shop at The Huss Project, which would include used bike repair for and with neighbors, developing an earn-a-bike youth bike program with Three Rivers Area Mentoring, and adding a bike-powered community compost program to increase mobility, accessibility, and connectivity throughout the city. A one-story portion on the south side of the old Huss School building will be renovated to accommodate the bike shop concept.
“It’s very exciting to be chosen,” the Huss Project’s Rob Vander Giessen-Reitsma said in an interview Friday. “We applied this spring, and we were one of 25 projects chosen from over 800 applicants. Pretty excited to be chosen from that group; there were a lot of good projects.”
A bicycle shop concept has been in the idea stage for The Huss Project for the past few years, Vander Giessen-Reitsma said. Such a concept, he said, would be based on similar models, like Open Roads in Kalamazoo or Back Alley Bikes in Detroit.
“They do some really interesting stuff, but basically, it’s recognizing that cycling can be a lot of things for a lot of people. It could be purely recreational, and that’s great. It could be transportation, and for younger people or older people who can’t drive, it could be a kind of freedom to get further out into your community,” Vander Giessen-Reitsma said. “We want to tap into that and provide a resource to help our neighbors enjoy all of those aspects of cycling while also working with some of our partners, like TRAM, to expand who this might be available to.”
The major aspect of the shop, which would be volunteer-run, would be bike repair, where Vander Giessen-Reitsma said people would be able to come in, fix their own bikes or have a volunteer who may be more knowledgeable about bikes fix it with them and show people how to do the repairs in the process, with tools and parts available to buy to help support the program.
Most of the ideas tangential to the shop, like the earn-a-bike program and the community compost program, are still in the early stages of development, and most likely won’t be implemented for a while at first, Vander Giessen-Reitsma said. However, he said the current plan is to have the shop complete and open by the end of fall, and be staffed with enough volunteers that could potentially have it open more hours outside of Saturdays during The Huss Project’s farmer’s markets.
Until then, he said there’s a lot they have to do with renovating the part of the building it will go in, including putting two new insulated glass garage doors on the front, putting in a new service door, putting a new coat of paint on that part of the building, and putting in new lights. The $50k, he said, would go a decent way toward getting that accomplished.
A check presentation to officially award the money is scheduled for Saturday, July 13 at 9 a.m. at The Huss Project, which is located at 1008 Eighth St. in Three Rivers.
Overall, Vander Giessen-Reitsma said the bike shop concept would be a big thing not just for The Huss Project, but for the city as a whole.
“I’m excited about it for Huss because it’s a vision we’ve had for some time that we’ve been eager to put into practice,” Vander Giessen-Reitsma said. “We’re hopeful it fills a need in the community, but also starts opening up avenues of possibility for neighbors, or even for kids thinking they could have a bit of their own mobility around the city or get to their friends’ house.”
Local city officials, in a press release Thursday, expressed their excitement for the project as well.
“I’m very excited that Three Rivers will have a bike shop again! It’s a sorely needed resource in our community and the Huss neighborhood is the perfect place for it,” Three Rivers Mayor Tom Lowry said. “I know this new community bike shop will serve the families in that neighborhood and our city well because of the Huss Project’s proven track record of good work in Three Rivers.”
“With this grant, the Huss Project will be able to institute a Community Bike Shop on the south end of the Huss Project building that would benefit our entire community,” At-Large City Commissioner Torrey Brown said. “As a parent of 7-, 11-, and 18-year-olds, this project will benefit my family and other families tremendously. Three Rivers is a growing community and the Huss Project plays a huge role in the city.”
According to T-Mobile, their Hometown Grant program has awarded more than $13 million in funding for community projects in 300 communities over 47 states since 2021.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
