FROM BIKES TO BUSES

Nine years ago, 14-year-old Monquavious got a flat bike tire while riding through Adair Park. He stopped into Bearings to get help but ended up coming back, again and again, to participate in the program. Co-Founder Tim O’Mara noticed Monquavious’ skills and capability and decided to offer him a position working in the shop.

Monquavious was Bearings’ first teen employee and now, at 23 years old, he puts the mechanical skills he learned with us to use in his career.

​​“I went from bikes to buses!” says Monquavious.

As a Bus Technician for MARTA, today Monquavious helps keep the city’s buses in working order, and he says the skills and knowledge he acquired while working on bikes at Bearings helped prepare him for the position.

Beyond the mechanical skills Monquavious developed working at Bearings, he says the experience helped prepare him for the real world and taught him responsibility. He hopes that kids in the program today stay focused and have a positive attitude so that they too can put the skills they learn to use in their future endeavors.

We’re so proud to see Monquavious thriving and inspired that something as simple as fixing a flat tire can impact a life.