Cycle Your Heart Out for Re~Cycle
For her 27th birthday, Sarah decided to do something different. She decided to complete a heart-shaped sponsored ride in her home town of Milton Keynes in aid of Re~Cycle. You can read more about Cycle Your Heart Out on their website.
Completed on the 2nd of July, her fantastic endevour attracted 26 fellow cyclists (and one dog) and has raised a massive £220 so far, and she's still looking for donations at her JustGiving page.
However, the story doesn't end there. As well as doing her own ride, Sarah is encouraging anyone to do their own heart-shaped cycle in aid of a charity of their choice and has put together a great guide on her website here.
So, why not get involved in the project and put yourself on the map? We're all really grateful to Sarah for her donation and can't wait to see other people's efforts. If you do decide to ride in aid of Re~Cycle, make sure you get in touch.
Bicycle Prints for sale at Re~Cycle
After the great success of last week's print sale at 15 Queen Street, we are now selling some here at our workshop in Colchester. Please drop by to have a look and maybe even buy one to take home.
On sale are pieces by Lauren Baker, Nial Harrington, Andy Gibbs, Alex Davis and Mike Polom, however the full range is still on display and for sale at 15 Queen Street and on their website here.
Pricing is £15 for A3 and £40 for A2, or £60 for A1 but you can order any combination of print and size.
Re~Cycle @15QueenStreet and Bicycle Themed Prints
Last Thursday 15 Queen Street celebrated their first birthday with a cycling-themed event, and Re~Cycle were invited! Derek gave a great talk explaining what we're about and why our work is so important both in the UK and for our partners in Africa.
(c) jjdoyle 2011
5th July 2011 - Ninth Container Arrives Safely in Malawi
Today we received the fantastic news from Jason, our man in the field, that our ninth container (loaded in November 2010) is finally in-situ in Malawi after long delays at the docks in South Africa.
This record-breaking container (475 bikes!) has been delivered to our partner in Mchinji, who work on behalf of the Salvation Army International Development Division in an effort to combat child trafficking.
6th Shipment of 2011 on the way - 28th June
On the 17th June we loaded up and shipped off our sixth container load of 2011. A few hiccups later and it's finally made it onto the boat this week.
However, this shipment was a little unusual. Destined for Cape Town, we've loaded it with primarily road bikes (336 in total) plus 5 bicycle rickshaws as well as 44 bags of the usual selection of spares parts.
Rickshaws take up lot of room in the container, and we did have to sacrifice 60 or so "regular" bicycles, but in cities like Cape Town they are invaluable. They've got all sorts of uses from taxis to transportation, and we're sure they'll find a great new home in Africa.
Finally, you can read the minutes from our latest London Re~Cycle meeting on the 16th of June HERE.
Re~Cycle at Glastonbury - 22-26 June
We're home safe and sound! Thanks to everyone that visited and hopefully see you all next time.
This year, for the first time, Re~Cycle had a stall at Glastonbury Festival, in the Green Futures Field along with many other eco/environment/campaigning groups including TSFR Cymru, the Welsh group of Tools for Self Reliance whose work we greatly admire.
We did a wide range of activities but the pedal powered mobile phone charging service was the biggest hit - thanks to Jason Pettit who made it work and kept in running.
Events @ Re~Cycle:
Friday, Saturday + Sunday:
- Cycle maintenance lessons @ 1-3 - thanks to the Bike Guru
- Pedal powered electrical generation workshop @ 3 - thanks to Jason
- Open mic - which we'll upload to the site!
For Sale: our quality and value wares, to raise much needed funds
- Organic t-shirts sporting our logo
- High viz vests, also sporting our log
- NEW - belts made from recycled bike tyres
- Fair Trade useful home-wares made from recycled bike chain
- Please see the Re~Cycle branded merchandise page for more
Thanks to all who dropped by for a chat and to find out about our work and for the generous support - nearly £550 raised from merchandise sales and donations.
Ghana partner registered and Milton Keynes bike ride - 9 June 2011
Our man in Ghana, Jason Finch has written to say that he "collected our certificate of registration from Accra yesterday - Ezetela Bicycle Workshop - is an official business!!! It's a big achievement for us all - including everyone at RC - congratulations!"
Our page about them is here - http://www.re-cycle.org/Africa/Partners/Ghana/Ezetela
Jason's been helping get them up and running, as well as getting vital feedback from existing partners and looking at new organisations to work with. In addition, he's had a big trip round Africa, visiting bike reuse groups. "Very Many thanks", says Re~Cycle founder Merlin.
Sarah has created a website www.cycleyourheartout.com to inspire people all around the world to fundraise for a cause they feel passionate about and cycle a route in the shape of a heat!
Launch is raising money for Re~Cycle and is on her 27th Birthday - 12pm on Saturday 2nd July. For those of you who are not massive cyclists the route will be easy and families and children are more than welcome!
26 May shipment of bikes loaded for Zambia
Our 5th shipment has just been sent on it's way to The Kaloko Trust, Zambia. 414 bikes were loaded plus many wheels and tyres and 74 packages of spare parts. The container will go via the port at Dar es Salaam, Tanzania so we are hoping the the delays at the port that existed earlier this year will have eased and that the eagerly awaited shipment will arrive as soon as possible.
11 May 2011 - Snowdrop Class at Stanford In The Vale Primary School raise £750
Class 1 Teacher Fiona Duffen has told us this lovely story.
"Snowdrop Class at Stanford In The Vale School in Oxfordshire have raised £750 for Re-Cycle through a sponsored bike ride. All term the Year 1 children have worked on a topic on bikes and this made an exciting end to their studies. They have learned about the benefits of using bicycles rather than cars and chose Re-Cycle partly because of this. They have also been interested to see the way the bikes are adapted so that people's lives can be made better. As they cycled round (on a very cold day in March) they were encouraged to think about the long journeys children like them have to make on foot in Africa and how cycling their 10 laps would help to make things easier for them"
Many thanks to Snowdrop class, Mrs. Duffen and all at the school for this wonderful awareness and fund raising event. The money raised has been used towards paying for the balance of the cost of shipping a container of 413 bicycles now on it's way to Namibia.
See also the See The Difference story below and note that there's a new video of the bike being loaded, scroll to the bottom of this page.
World of Difference - April 2011
Thanks to the Vodaphone Foundation, through the World of Difference programme, we are able to have a full time addition to our team for the next few months.
Laura Mumford was awarded one of 500 World of Difference places which help people to work for a charity of their choice for 2 months full time. Laura will be working on the possibility of tracking our bicycles to establish a greater understanding of their benefits to the recipients in our partner projects and also assisting with the London Reuse Network London hub proposals. You can find out more about her time with Re~Cycle here: