The Wire’s vision: then and now
By Stephanie Mislevy, Staff Writer
March 31, 2007 | 4:58 p.m.
If you go to the Wire during their open hours, you might be lucky enough to get a personal guided tour of the community resource center’s space.
The first time I visited the Wire, 21 Kern St., on a Friday evening, Clara and Basil Radwany, the children of volunteer Joe Radwany, eagerly led us around the Wire’s space.
Clara, 5, and Basil, 6, showed us the art room, a space filled with miscellaneous supplies for art projects; the kitchen, where the organization hosts vegan cooking nights on Tuesdays and community members are welcome to cook and use any of the food and supplies that have been donated; and the bike repair shop, where people can fix their bike using donated parts and tools or get help from bike repair volunteers on the weekends. We browsed in the lending library and checked out the computers with free high-speed Internet access. We also looked in on a belly dancing class going on in the Dakini, one of the rooms the Wire subleases.
The Wire began approximately four years ago when about a dozen people, mostly college students, came up with the idea for a community-based library and meeting space for community members, said Erika Hedin, 21, an Ohio University student and Athens resident who has been involved with the Wire since its inception.
While college students didn’t have a problem finding a place for their organizations to meet at the university, community-based groups didn’t have as many options, Hedin said. The Wire could provide a free place for groups to hold meetings.
About three years ago, the Wire acquired a space in the upstairs of its current location that was about the size of the organization’s lending library, Hedin said. Six months later the Wire moved to its present site, which is a significantly larger space.
The Wire is run by a group of about 30 student and community member volunteers who maintain the space, organize events and run shifts during their open hours, Wednesday through Sunday, 2:00 to 8:00 p.m. Some volunteers hold positions such as volunteer coordinator, outreach coordinator, space coordinator and treasurer for six-month periods, but there is no hierarchy at the Wire.
“Nobody’s in charge,” Radwany said. “It’s all run by consensus.”
To keep the Wire running, the organization subleases several rooms, including the one for The Dakini dance classes. Additionally, volunteers hold fundraisers such as benefit dinners, benefit concerts, rock’n’roll karaoke, bike-a-thons with per mile pledges, rummage sales, bake sales and art sales, Hedin said.
Their most recent benefit dinner was Sunday, Jan. 28, at Purple Chopstix restaurant, 371 Richland Ave. They hold four to five benefit dinners per year, always at Purple Chopstix.
Volunteers from the Wire prepared salads, ginger lime butternut soup, bok choy coleslaw, cilantro tofu or chicken, vegetables and ginger apple crisp. Guests at the dinners can leave their anonymous monetary donations in envelopes on the tables, Hedin said.
“I always go to the benefit dinners,” said Sarah Conley, who graduated from Ohio University in 2004 and used to volunteer at the Wire when she was a student and the organization was just getting started.
Conley’s mother-in-law, Carre Gibbons of Cincinnati, said she always comes to Athens for the benefit dinners.
“I very much support the concept of a community-supported resource organization,” Gibbons said.
Attendance at the benefit dinners varies, Hedin said. However, this dinner’s attendance was small in comparison to past benefit dinners.
The Wire is consistently changing. There used to be a greater focus on shows and concerts, which the Wire hosted for local bands. Bands could use the Wire’s speakers, which were donated from Casa Nueva, 4 W. State St. However, now there is more focus on the bike repair shop, said Malcolm Meyer, a volunteer who’s been working with the Wire since its beginning.
“I would like to see it continue to operate, be more financially stable and get more people involved,” Meyer said.
Another volunteer, Ian Cubie, 20, said he would like the Wire to be more “youth-oriented.” The volunteers have an idea for a “free school” in which people volunteer to teach a topic they believe they’re knowledgeable about, he said.
“I would like to see it be more focused on education and bikes,” Hedin said.
However, the future of the Wire “depends on who’s involved,” Meyer said.