CAMBRIDGE — Glen Donaldson wants to donate his time to fix up bicycles and give them to people who can’t afford them.

Maranatha Christian Reformed Church is ready to sponsor the program and run it as a community project to give young people in the south-Galt neighbourhood a place to learn hands-on skills.

But he doesn’t have a little workshop space to repair the 50 bikes he already has stockpiled in a storage trailer — let alone the bikes he expects will flood in if he puts the word out again that he’s collecting bikes.

The city doesn’t have money or vacant space to offer him, but there are plans in the works to create a community innovation centre in Cambridge. It would give non-profit groups, entrepreneurs and artists inexpensive communal office and workspace.

And it might be able to offer a few free corners to help community-minded people such as Donaldson, said Linda Terry, of the Cambridge-North Dumfries Social Planning Council.

She’s convinced there’s a city-wide need for inexpensive working space.

“Since this (idea) has been floating around, I probably have 10 or 12 or 15 emails saying ‘I’m looking for space.’ ‘I’d need 100 square feet or 200 square feet.’ They need an office.”

A committee including Mayor Doug Craig and officials from a half-dozen community groups has already made a pitch to the Ontario Trillium Foundation for money to make their idea a reality.

The request for a share of Ontario lottery money was rejected in the summer because the money ran out, Terry said. It was submitted again in November. Committee members are meeting with Trillium officials this week, with hopes of getting a yes before spring.

Terry envisions a Cambridge community incubator similar to the Centre for Social Innovation on Spadina Avenue in Toronto. There, two-floors of a four-storey building are filled with small offices, meeting rooms, and common reception areas for rent to non-profit groups and small businesses.

Until there’s money available to do something, Terry wouldn’t talk about where the community incubator centre might be located. Nor would she say how much of a startup grant has been requested.

Donaldson is also convinced there’s a widespread need for inexpensive or free space for non-profit groups in Cambridge — such as a community bicycle repair shop.

At a city budget meeting last Monday, Donaldson and Len Bakelaar from Maranatha church asked for help to set up a bike repair operation. They want to set up something like Recycle Cycle in The Working Centre in downtown Kitchener.

They called on the city to help by purchasing a building the city’s 150 community groups could use — and offer a little corner for bicycle repairs. No decisions were made by politicians, but it’s unlikely the city will help.

“We have a long list of people we’ve had to turn away because we don’t have that kind of space,” said Jim King, chief administrative officer.

Donaldson used to have free use of a corner of an old factory on Beverly Street for a workshop. Now he has bikes but no place to work on them.

Last year, when he put a small advertisement in the Cambridge Times looking for donated bicycles, people dropped them off in twos, fours and sixes.

It didn’t take long for word to get around that he was taking the bikes to the Cambridge Self-Help Food Bank for distribution.

“I didn’t even get them into the food bank and they were gone,” he said.

In all, he must have repaired and handed out 300 bikes.

Donaldson said he lives on a disability pension, started fixing bikes to stay busy and wants to give back to the community.

“I do this strictly out of my own pocket . . . I pretty well do it on my own.”

Donaldson is a member of Maranatha, which already runs youth programs weeknights at the Elgin Street South church.

“We feel (a bike shop) will really benefit the community we live in with the church . . . to work with the youth, which is an important aspect of any city,” Bakelaar said.

Contact Donaldson at 519-212-4699.