Out Our Front Door Newsletter - March 2023

Annual Hootenanny Fundraiser

Come out and help us celebrate the coming bike camping season and one of the coolest non-profits in the city!

Tuesday, April 11 from 6-9pm 

Metropolitan Brewing in Avondale (3057 N Rockwell St, Chicago) is our incredibly generous host this year. 

Tickets include: 

• 1 Metropolitan craft beer
• All you can eat chili mac with vegan and veggie options
• A free raffle ticket 
• DJ Lawrence Peters will be spinning a curated selection of songs for the night
• ​A great party with on of the greatest adventure communities in the region           

Tickets:

Cheaper early bird tickets are on Eventbrite (tickets here). Tickets available at the door for $40.

Kids are welcome and free! Metropolitan is dog friendly so please feel welcome to bring your pup!

We’ll be raffling some sweet prizes as well. All ticket and raffle proceeds go to supporting OOFD’s mission of immersing and educating in local history and nature via bike adventures.         


The Raffle:

During the event, we will have raffle prizes from super generous businesses around the city, many of which are our beloved local bike shops who always show up huge for OOFD and our mission. Raffle Prizes will include:

• OOFD Shirts/swag/free overnight rides
• Outdoor gear from Patagonia and Arc'teryx
• Bike service/supplies/gift cards from a variety of local bike shops 
• Many more are coming in and we’ll keep you posted on social when they do.
• Last year we had over $2000 in raffle prizes so this year should be just as amazing!

Tickets available in advance here. ​

Partnership Highlight for Our Youth Program

We are thrilled with our latest partnership with Bikes N Roses which is an incredible community bike shop that focuses on youth programming based in the Belmont Craign neighborhood on Chicago Northwest Side. 

We have already teamed up for a community awareness event as well as a bike bag making workshop where their After School Matters Youth build feedbags alongside OOFD volunteers. 

They have been super welcoming and generous with their space and even are housing our fleet of 10 adaptive bikes for free! 

They are hosting a volunteer day tomorrow from 9am-1pm at their shop to build bikes (for the city's free bike program). All skill sets, even beginners are welcome. More deets and RSVP here. ​

Brief Update and Upcoming Events

We wrapped up our Volunteer Training month of March in fine fashion with 30 folks in attendance of the Guide Training in the beautiful Specialized Fulton Market community space (thank you!) and 10 more at the make up training this past week. Thanks to everyone that came out. It was a lot of fun, and some great stories were shared. Goodness do we have a freaking stellar crew of guides for y'all this year! Wanna volunteer? Express your interest here, and we'll keep you in the loop on ways to get involved. 

And the bike camping rides are selling like mad! Our first two Adult Overnights and our first Family Overnight are sold out (almost 3 months in advance)! Be sure to snag a spot on any ride you want to ride with us this year!

• Tuesday, April 4 at Smith Park in Ukrainian Village - Monthly Hang starting at 730.  Back up location in case of bad weather if The Beetle bar. 
• Saturday, April 8 at Patagonia Mag Mile -  Patagonia has been so awesome to us. Come say hi as we'll have a table set up in the store talking to folks about our upcoming season. 
• Tuesday, April 11 at Metropolitan Brewery - The Hootenanny Fundraiser
• Saturday, April 22 - Earth Day Where the Wild Things Grow Ride to The Major Taylor Trail. We will likely meet at Palmisano Park in Bridgeport at 845am and ride 10ish miles down to the service day. Service deets here. Keep an eye on our social media for specific details on the ride to service. 
• Book Club - We will be reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer in late Spring, early Summer. 

Looking forward to partying with you all on April 11 at Metropolitan Brewery for the Hootenanny and over the whole year bike camping!

Much love,
Glenn and the whole OOFD crew