gLoves go live

Our minions recently stocked the first set of "re-paired" gLoves on the shelves of the Community Cycling Center. Spend a dollar and get yourself a pair of gLoves to wear!

Thank You!

Oh my goodness. gLoves arrived at the CCC via mail! This is incredible, thanks to everyone who as donated and a special thanks to the lovely people in Connecticut who must have stumbled upon our blog --- and mailed in a donation!

More information to come but a quick update: We sorted and mended and matched some gLoves in the sunshine of this weekend and there are now a few pairs available at the CCC - for only one dollar!

This is happening and we can't believe it!
More Thanks!!!
And one more exclamation!

Donated gLoves arrive

gLoves have begun to be dropped off at the Community Cycling Center.

Here are pics of the collection bucket...

 ...and real live donated gloves put in there. The bucket is filling up!

Thanks for your donation. If you are new to the gLove orphanage and would like to make a donation, just bring them to the CCC and give them to a staff person. The collection bucket is located behind the counter to help avoid confusion with the uninitiated.

The gLove orphanage is for everyone

But on this day it is especially for gLovers - cleverly defined as anyone who has donated to the gLove orphanage. Thanks for your support everyone. So far I'm pretty sure this only includes family and friends (so close they are family) so double thanks for putting up with us always. And the Community Cycling Center, thanks for your interest in this bonkers dream that's becoming more and more a reality.

As for the rest of you (the soon-to-be gLovers) get out there! Ride your bike around! And while you safely keep your eyes on the road, check out the gutters for gLoves in wait! Also, why not spend a short period of time on Valentines Day cleaning out an old drawer, box, wherever strange place you may be stashing some orphan gloves or mittens and bring them to us. We'd really appreciate your gLove.

Sometimes

There have been conversations about the nice idea of finding lost glove's original owners and matching partner. This is not our mission, we get joy from creating new partnerships.

That being said, every now and then we accept there will be a special glove (who are we to say that a particular glove is special?) and that glove could be located in such a distinct place that it could easily be identified by it's owner. I have come across such a gLove. A few days ago I found this here solo friend (pictured below) in Whole Foods--absentmindedly left while it's owner picked out some produce at the store on East Burnside. Are you missing this lovely specimen, do you have this glove's mate? Let us know. While we are more than happy to find it a new mate, it would be nice to reunite friends.

Lost gloves in situ

There's a certain poetry to a lost glove. It wants to tell a story, like it is capturing a moment in time to mark where someone was distracted or lost in thought.

Below are some quick pics of gloves, mostly along bike routes, as they were found before they were picked up. Is there a secret sign language in the gestures, how the fingers are placed and where they are positioned on the ground?

The Glove Tree, an inspiration for the gLove orphanage

The following was taken from a blog from one of the gLove orphanage's volunteer gnomes. It describes an effort that appeared in Portland on NE Alberta Street in January 2010. It helped inspire the gLove orphanage.

Throughout the winter I've noticed many orphan mittens and gloves along the bike lanes and streets of Portland. Maybe this is because I lost my own long-used and much-loved polyester "Miller Beer" fingerless gloves? (I don't remember where they came from. They were probably found on the street as well. Still, I'd had them forever and they'd served me well for spring and fall biking.) In a vain hope of finding mine, all the other dirty, soggy flattened ones caught my eye. Wouldn't it be nice if these gloves could be reunited with their owners?

The other day I noticed that some community-minded stranger(s) implemented an idea I've long considered. There is now a "Glove Tree" on a corner of Northeast Alberta Street and 20th.

The sign says it all:


This weekend while cleaning up the street in front on our house, I found a solitary red glove. Since the glove tree was nearby, why not make use of it? I grabbed a few extra clothes-line pins (to donate to the cause) and took a neighborhood stroll to hang up the glove. Oddly enough, on the way home I found the matching half about a block away! Sadly this other hand was pretty threadbare, having spent the last month or so in the gutter of Alberta Street getting ground up by car tires and muck. It's heartening to know some lonely owner may be reunited--and now with the complete pair. At the very least someone else can make use of a pair of gloves.



If you're biking in NE Portland and see a stray glove, you now know where the lost and found is.

The Glove Tree didn't last very long. Probably the managers of the apartment building it was adjacent to took it down after a few weeks. We don't think there is much hope of consistently reuniting lost gloves with their original owners. Instead these and other gloves should be paired up and introduced to new owners. Still, the spirit of the Glove Tree lives on in the gLove orphanage.