"On The Bench" Update: Community Made Bus Stop Benches!
A few cool things have happened in the past few months with "On The Bench," so I wanted to share an update!
“On The Bench” is a program created through a partnership from three local non-profit organizations: Play NC, Bull City Woodshop, and Bike Durham. The program is designed to build and distribute locally-made wood benches to bus stops that need them in Durham, NC. “On the Bench” hopes to improve conditions for our public transit system and provide a solution to a significant problem in the community, while also spreading awareness for our charity partners.
In January, I was inspired by this Reddit post to start building benches for bus stops. That lead to a Play NC partnership with Bull City Woodshop and Bike Durham, the founding of the "On The Bench" program for Play NC, buckets of sawdust, and a lot of positive feedback from everyone that has learned about the project!
I designed the bench, but "bench building" falls outside of the general "sports and games" focus for Play NC (my charity), so Bull City Woodshop appropriately took over the main operations of the program and actual bench building. The program has been very successful for BCW, with two previously sold out classes and being awarded two significant community grants: $5,000 from a Durham City Mini-Grant and $4,000 from a Duke "Doing Good" Grant. BCW is holding at least two more FREE sessions (September 12 and October 17) and hope to add at least one more before the end of the year, if they sell out these FREE classes. We currently have 18 benches "out in the wild" / actively being sat upon at a bus stop, and we can build 10 benches per class, so these classes will increase our total to 38 benches for the year. They sold out quick last time, so sign up soon!
Sign up to build a bench, it's fun! I'll be there to help! https://bullcitywoodshop.org/pages/community-woodworking-classes-bull-city-woodshop
We have had a few benches damaged that had to be returned to the shop for minor repairs, but nothing major and most of the materials were able to be salvaged. Also, despite initial worries, no benches have been stolen. Plenty of graffiti, of course, but I call that free artwork and we're looking into ways to make these benches even more colorful, vibrant, and special to help discourage any serious vandalism. We have a goal of making at least 50 during our first year, so please register and help us fill the demand for at least one more class! If we get stuck at #48, I'll just make the last two myself.
To view a map of the current installments, with photos and addresses on the bus stops, check out the embedded map at playdurham.com/bench/
Our 4 newest benches were just installed along Fayetteville Road, between Highway 54 and Woodcroft Parkway. These have our fancy new information plaques, with a QR code to report damages or make a donation, and represent the first benches that we've added for the South Durham side of town!
Separately from "On The Bench," bench-making has also been popular enough that BCW has expanded their Woodshop Wagon program (the workshop comes to you) to feature benches. So far, BCW has had two local neighborhoods sign up to and make shared community benches for their streets, cul-de-sacs, and shared paths. BCW also started a program at the Emily K Center, where 6th–8th grade students get hands-on experience building benches for local bus stops. These benches will be everywhere!
How can you help?
Let me know if you have any questions or have any other ideas to help! I'll post another update once we build Bench #50! Thanks for all of your support!
TLDR: I had an idea to build wooden benches for bus stops in January. Half way through the year, we have partnered with >5 local organizations, hosted woodworking classes for more than 500 people, built >20 bus benches (18 currently being used by bus riders), expanded to hosting community bench workshops for local neighborhoods, received >$11,000 in donations / grants to support the project, and we are on pace to install 50 benches in Durham by the end of the year.
Bonus: The last photo is my favorite thing to do with the scraps - make a baby bench!