So about those blank envelopes....

Screen Shot 2014-12-15 at 1.04.37 PMFunny story.

{Time machine music}

The year is 2012. The season is winter holidays. Our anti-hero, Meredith Joy — YB's founder and former Executive Director — is deep in the woods as the organization's sole full-time volunteer-ish staff person. Yet she desires above all else to write an annual report for members detailing all the progress they'd made possible that year. She buys envelopes and postage and sparkly star stickers and a red holiday stamp so that it's an experience to receive the report in the mail. An honor! She preps the envelopes with care (well actually her trusty sidekick Ken Cohen does)... but then! Our poor Meredith is stricken with the dread writer's block and can't finish the report in time to mail it, so she emails it instead. And the stamped, addressed envelopes languish in the office for 2 lonely years.

{Time machine music}

The year is 2014. It's a new day at Yay Bikes!, with a new Director (yay Catherine Girves!) and an actual administrative staff member (yay Kathleen Watkins!)!  And they are lean, mean cost-cutting machines. They take a look at those envelopes and say to one another "hey, so uh, I think we can trade these in at the post office and get money back for the unused stamps". And thus they do. And thus the geniuses at the post office refund them for the stamps but somehow 3 weeks thereafter become confused and mail them all out anyway, empty and unsealed, right at the precise time that Kathleen had mailed awesome letters to our current members with free Chipotle burrito cards. Which, of course, confused the hell out of everyone.

And thus Meredith summoned all that was in her to write this here blog post to shout to the world that "dammit, that $83.79 was totally worth it.... right?!", in the hopes that YB! will somehow, some way triumph over this desperate crisis. And the day was (probably? hopefully?) saved.

{And scene}