GEARS Gives

Since the beginning, Gears Bike Shop has been involved in the community, our community.  We grew up here, we live here, and we want it to be the best possible place it can be. Giving back is absolutely vital for everyone, individual and business alike.

In addition to giving to other causes in the community we decided to become extremely active in charity work, and took on our own cause, cancer.  In today’s society cancer is difficult to avoid, what we can do are make choices to decrease the chances of getting it, and build health centers in our community that make cancer easier to cope with. One reason Kevin started Gears rather than taking a different direction with his life, was to stay near his mom to support her and help her deal with her cancer, since her husband, Kevin’s dad, died seven years earlier.  Betty passed away in 1993, five years after Kevin began Gears.

We used our Indoor Cycling bikes as a vehicle to produce what is now one of Canada’s largest charity events, The Gears 24 Hour for Breast Cancer.  Together with our community we have raised in excess of $5 million dollars, and have built the new Betty Wallace Women’s Health Centre at Trillium Health Centre in Toronto.  The Centre, named after Kevin’s mom is a constant reminder and inspiration to Kevin and all of us at Gears, that anyone of us is able to make a solid contribution to society, we just have to try!  Special thanks must be given to Michele and Dennis Dellios, Jeff Rushton, Mark Bonham, Freddy Carlberg and Scott Graham of Boomerang Design, Mariola Broder, Anne Ferko, Andrea Page, Sue Crews, Lynn Miller, Ingrid Lane, Alison Podsiadlo, Greg Vanderspek.

Another way that Gears gives back is by rallying our customers at Christmas time.  One of the local churches, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Memorial in Port Credit provides us with a flock of cutout “Christmas Angels”.  We hang these on our Christmas tree in the front of the store, and our customers become angels by fulfilling the Christmas wishes of many needy families at a very emotional time of year.  They take the angel and return with a gift for their fellow community members; people of all ages, children, teenagers, moms and dads, to put under the tree.  By Christmas all the angels have returned and no one gets left out.  We have been putting up the Angel Tree for several years, and each year it is a huge success allowing many people to feel fulfilled; it is amazing to see the willingness to share and the generosity of our customers.  Thank-you!

Over the years Gears has supported many causes and these are some of them:

It may be possible for Gears to consider your group for a donation, however we feel that businesses in a community should give back to the community they are in. So, we normally do not consider requests for donations outside of our immediate communities. Please send your request, at least one month in advance, to ira@gearsbikeshop.com and either mail or drop off a letter, describing your event in detail and what cause or who will benefit, at one of our shops. Please explain how Gears will benefit from being involved and what methods of exposure you will offer donors. Please include a contact name, an email, and a mailing address.