Photo credit: Azania Rizing Photography
This year's Cranksgiving was happily a mixture of the “old” and “new”. Last year, after rethinking how such a dynamic event could happen safely admist COVID-19, we were grateful to combine some of the elements for this year’s 7th Annual Cranksgiving. And our community showed up in large numbers!
210 riders participated in 56 teams
43 volunteers checked riders in, and counted & organized food
$2500+ of groceries donated
1400 pounds of fresh fruits from Hungry Harvest donated
$440 dollars raised directly for Moveable Feast & the Franciscan Center
4 checkpoints run by partners
22 local businesses donated prizes
6 sponsors provided funding for the event
Last year gave us an opportunity to be a little more creative with how Cranksgiving would logistically happen. We adopted a two manifest arrangement of stops so riders could end directly at one of our food partners - The Franciscan Center or Moveable Feast. Manifests were sent out virtually, and participants rode home after dropping off their food.
This year’s Cranksgiving allowed us to keep what worked last year; we kept the two manifests, meaning that we had a total amount totaling 17 checkpoints across the city — we'd like to believe that this is just one minute contributing factor to having more exposure and visibility of cyclists of all types on the road across the city for such a valuable cause.
This also meant this year’s event needed more support than ever to make possible, and we are so grateful for the volunteers, businesses, and their creativity that really made the event. Hungry Harvest joined us for a second year to set up a produce pick-up checkpoint, REI hosted a cornhole at the Washington Monument, Cutlass Velo hosted a ringtoss checkpoint at St. Mary’s Park, and A Few Cool Hardware Stores set up a checkpoint at Waverly Ace Hardware to promote their PPE Drive for Moveable Feast. Volunteers stationed at parks ran challenges from guessing a word in American Sign Language to naming parts on a bike.
Cranksgiving is truly a community event. It was an idea originally planted in a Facebook group, planned by friends, filled with support from Baltimore businesses — all to benefit those facing food insecurity this winter, and done by people on bikes. Bikemore is really grateful we get the chance to harness your energy into a positive force for Baltimore.
Check out photos from the photobooth on Facebook!
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Cranksgiving Sponsors
Prize Sponsors
cranksgiving benefits
Special thanks to
Charm City Meadworks for hosting our after party, Hungry Harvest for donating produce, Cutlass Velo for hosting a checkpoint, REI for hosting a checkpoint, and a Few Cool Hardware Stores for hosting a checkpoint. Thanks to Brian O’Doherty for taking Cranksgiving photobooth pics!