• Bunna Bike business provides fresh-brewed coffee while raising funds for World Bicycle Relief

When Sitka teacher Chris Bryner asks his students to write about what they did this summer, he’ll have his own stories to tell.

This summer, Chris launched a business called Bunna Bike: Brew Coffee, Build Community. Chris, who hasn’t owned a car in two decades, used an Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign in June to raise the start-up funds for his bicycle-based coffee business, which opened in July next to the Sitka Sound Science Center mill building (where the Ludvig’s Bistro Chowder Cart operates during the summer). The business will be open until mid-August, when Chris will close up so he can prepare for the school year at Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary School.

According to a story aired July 9 on KCAW-Raven Radio, the project actually started four years ago when Chris and his fourth-grade class brewed coffee each week to sell to teachers and staff. The students learned about running a small business through the project, and they donated funds to a charity called Coffee Kids, which works with coffee-growing families in Latin America.

Chris used the money raised from his Indiegogo fundraiser to buy a special cargo bike from Icicle Tricycles and two Forte grinders from Baratza. He gets his free-trade coffee from Steamdot Coffee of Anchorage (his home roaster) and Kuma Coffee of Seattle (his guest roaster), which he sells by the cup or by the bag.

When Chris started Bunna Bike, he dedicated 10 percent of all sales to a charity called World Bicycle Relief, which mobilizes the people of Africa by building them bikes. Chris and his wife, Tiffany, adopted a daughter, Shewa, from Ethiopia in October 2013, and they wanted to contribute something to her home country. Bunna is Amharic for coffee.

 

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• Sitka dedicates a new covered bike shelter of second-growth wood at Sitka Sound Science Center

On Tuesday, Jan. 28, Sitka residents gathered together near the Sitka Sound Science Center to dedicate a new covered bike shelter built using second-growth timber from the Tongass National Forest. Before the dedication ceremony, a group of cyclists led by Sitka Assembly member Phyllis Hackett and including a small girl on a pushbike held a community bike ride from Totem Square to the new shelter.

The new shelter (link goes to previous post announcing dedication ceremony) was constructed by students of recently retired Sitka High School construction instructor Randy Hughey and community volunteers. It was designed by Dan Sheehan to use second-growth timber from the Tongass National Forest. The shelter is part of a project coordinated by the Sitka Conservation Society and funded through theNational Forest Foundation’s Community Capacity and Land Stewardship program.

The dedication was led by Sitka Conservation Society employees Ray Friedlander and Marjorie Hennessy, and included a few words from Hackett, Perry Edwards of the U.S. Forest Service-Sitka Ranger District, Sitka Sound Science Center Executive Director Lisa Busch, and Hughey, Hennessey also presented Hughey with a few gifts for leading the construction. After the ceremony, there was a reception at the Sitka Sound Science Center with salmon chowder and locally produced root beer from the Baranof Island Brewing Company. Click here for KCAW-Raven Radio‘s story about the dedication ceremony.

• Two-page flier from Sitka Conservation Society about the young-growth timber used to build this bike shelter

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• Community bike ride set for Tuesday, Jan. 28, to help dedicate new bike shelter at Sitka Sound Science Center

Sitka Assembly member Phyllis Hackett will lead a short community bike ride at 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 28, to help dedicate a new bike shelter at the Sitka Sound Science Center, with coordination from the Sitka Conservation Society. Bike riders should meet at Totem Square for a ride to the Sitka Sound Science Center where a dedication ceremony will take place at 3 p.m.

The new bike shelter was constructed using local, young growth timber as part of a project coordinated by the Sitka Conservation Society and funded through the National Forest Foundation’s Community Capacity and Land Stewardship program. The project was led by Sitka High School construction instructor Randy Hughey and Dan Sheehan, who designed the building and constructed it with the help of Sitka High School students and community volunteers. The project provided local, young growth timber to students and volunteers to gain practical woodworking skills, produce a community asset, and further explore the applications of young growth timber.

The shelter is a beautiful timber framed structure made of young growth Sitka spruce and old growth red cedar. Not only is the bike shelter a much needed asset, it is charming in its execution thanks to the vision of Randy and Dan’s design. Randy, who recently retired after 30 years, taught the Sitka High construction and industrial arts courses, while Dan is an experienced timber framer. The two partnered up for this project and collectively poured about 300 hours of work and dedication into the construction of the shelter along with the help of SHS students and local volunteers. Collectively, over 900 hours of work and volunteer hours went into the construction and moving of the shelter.

This shelter will serve as a demonstration project, highlighting the importance of local products, local craftsmanship and knowledge, the strength of community and contributing to local economy. Multiple partners came together, culminating in a donation from Coastal Excavation who relocated and installed the shelter on Thursday, Jan. 16.The bike shelter is located near the Sitka Sound Science Center, Crescent Harbor playground, and across from the Sheldon Jackson Museum, making it ideally located to access all of these community amenities, along with the newly installed Sitka Sea Walk.

For more information, contact Sitka Conservation Society Conservation Solutions Coordinator Marjorie Hennessy, or Sitka Conservation Society Executive Director Andrew Thoms at 747-7509, or contact the Sitka Sound Science Center Executive Director Lisa Busch at 747-8878. To learn more about second-growth structures from the Tongass National Forest, watch this video.

(Photos by Adam Andis and Charles Bingham)

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