MEMPHIS, Tenn. (BRAIN) — Clark Butcher, owner of Victory Bicycle Studio in Memphis, has teamed up with local nonprofit Carpenter Art Garden founder Erin Harris to open the Carpenter Street Workshop, a community bike shop.
The shop will offer bike manufacturing and repair classes, and graduates of the programs will have the opportunity to work with Butcher at Victory Bicycle Studio, which also serves as 3T Cycling's U.S. Repair and Customer Service Center, in order to continue learning the trade.
"Our hope for the Workshop is to give the young men and women in the community a hope for prosperity in the future," said Butcher, who founded Victory Bicycle Studio in 2010. "They'll be given the opportunity to have equity in a company and a full-time career that they may never have thought possible before."
Local bike advocate Anthony Siracusa will act as executive director. Siracusa is the founder of Revolutions Community Bike Shop and president of Bike Walk Tennessee. A $50,000 grant from the Plough Foundation helped pay for the Workshop's space, and recent donations from financial advisers Raymond James will be used to hire an employee from the Binghampton neighborhood where the Workshops is located to shadow Siracusa during the first year.
Classes are slated to begin next month.
