And now for something completely different…
Some of you may already know that I’m an avid mountain biker – I have almost as many bikes as I do Macintoshes (which is a little scary). Well, the gym I belong to is sponsoring a spin-a-thon to support the BikeTown Africa Project. On Sunday, we’ll have a gym full of people pedaling like mad on stationary bikes for four hours to raise awareness and money for BikeTown Africa.
What’s BikeTown Africa?
Founded in 2005 by the Kona Bicycle Co., the Bristol Myers-Squibb Secure the Future Foundation, and Bicycling Magazine, the BikeTown Africa Project provides new, well-built, low-maintenance Kona AfricaBikes to home health care workers in sub-Saharan Africa to facilitate the treatment of HIV/AIDS patients. Just $100 covers the cost of donating one bike, including training its user on maintenance and repair. Using a bike, a health care worker can visit eight or more patients per day instead of one!
What can you do?
The Weight Club and Virginia Tech University Honors are holding the spin-a-thon on Sunday. I’m participating and raising money from sponsors because I think this is a very worthwhile cause – it’s putting long-term, practical resources on the ground to help combat a huge health issue.
I’ve set up a page so you can sponsor me for the spin-a-thon here:
http://store.eSellerate.net/stclairsoft/biketown
You can give as little as $5, or as much as you want in $5 increments by buying more than one of the ‘donations’. I’m personally covering the payment processing cost, so your entire donation will be given to the BikeTown Africa Project. The spin-a-thon is this Sunday, so please make your donation before noon on Sunday.
Update: Well, the spin-a-thon is over (hence the crossed out donation link) but thanks to readers here and to the dedication of a a lot of folks at the Weight Club and VT University Honors, we raised $7440 for BikeTown Africa! Thank you!!
– Jon
