When the Kids Open the Shop

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Thursday morning at ZummoBike started with a small problem.

Actually, maybe a pretty good-sized one.

Ed, our lead technician and a second-year student at Temple University, was down in Philadelphia getting his apartment set up for the school year.

Elijah, who has spent the summer helping run the shop and lead Boot Camp, was getting a haircut and making his final preparations before heading back to Rochester, where he attends RIT.

And Steve?

Steve was at the YMCA, sticking to his commitment to take care of his health.

That left two eighth graders, Gill and Will, ready to come to work at 10:00—with no adult available to open the shop.

So Steve went to Will.

“You talk about your grandfather all the time. Think he might come in with you and Gill, put on a Zummo shirt, and help you guys open the shop?”

About 20 minutes later, Will came back with the answer.

“My grandfather is coming. He’ll be there at 10.”

Problem solved.

No committee meeting. No cancelled workday. No waiting around for somebody else to figure it out.

Will saw what needed to happen, called his grandfather, signed him up for the Zummo team for the morning, and kept things moving.

And somewhere in that little Thursday-morning adventure is a big part of what ZummoBike is all about.

We teach young people bicycle mechanics. We teach customer service, business, technology, and entrepreneurship. But perhaps most importantly, we try to give them opportunities to take responsibility—to encounter a real problem and discover that they are capable of helping solve it.

Ten years from now, Gill and Will may be running businesses of their own. They may be leading teams, building companies, solving problems nobody has thought of yet, and using tools like AI that are only beginning to reshape the way we work.

But leadership doesn't suddenly appear when you're 25.

It starts on mornings like this.

A shop needs opening.

An eighth grader makes a phone call.

A grandfather puts on a Zummo shirt.

And everybody gets to work.

Just another Story from the Shop.