RAGBRAI is a Iowa Gazette sponsored event where about 10,000 bike riders ride their bikes on a designated route across Iowa the last week in July. My husband has been doing this for 5 years or so, and our oldest son has joined him the last 2. They think this is great fun...actually NOT my idea of a vacation.
Anyway...my husband helped someone who had hundreds of old bikes by giving them them the info of a place in Chicago that sends bikes to Third World countries. Because of this hundreds of poor people will have access to transportation. I thought this was worthy enough for you to see.
The Lizard Kings Help Third World Country with Donation of Bikes
The Lizard Kings (name of a Cedar Rapids, IA bike rider group) have been riding RAGBRAI since the mid-90's. One of their members, Karmin McShane, is the Executive Director of the Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency. Karmin sent an email out to her Lizard King team members stating that they had a surplus of old bikes that the agency had collected and asked if any teammates had any ideas to utilize the bikes since the agency was attempting to divert them from the landfill. Dennis Mumm, a Chicago area Lizard King, knew of an agency that was involved in refurbishing old bikes for third world countries.
The Working Bikes Cooperative of Chicago is the agency that had a use for the bikes. They even sent a truck over to Cedar Rapids to pick up the large collection. A small portion of the bikes collected are refurbished and resold locally to cover the cost to ship the remaining bikes overseas to developing countries. The bikes are often re-tooled into other machines. Instead of piling up in landfills, these bikes are helping those in need.
Thanks Lizard Kings!
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