The citizens of Wanduruppa, Squamish's partner village in tsunami-stricken Sri Lanka, lost their bikes along with everything else on the day of the tsunami.
For many of the villagers, bikes were the only way to travel the 3 km to the closest town, or 15 km to the nearest commercial centre.
Humanity Village Project organizer Patricia Heintzman witnessed first hand the need for bikes in Wanduruppa and immediately thought that Squamish's strong biking community could help.
"It's something you don't think about when you're over here in Canada that this might be one of the things that is an integral part of their daily life," said Heintzman.
"But we've got such a phenomenally strong and interesting bike community here that people understand what a bike can mean in someone's life. It was a neat synergy."
Heintzman approached her friend Jude Goodwin, who asked about ways she could help.
Goodwin's enthusiasm for biking has driven her to create squamishmountainbike.com, so allowing her to spearhead the effort was perfect fit.
Goodwin immediately contacted local biking groups to begin raising $6,000 for 100 bikes, which Heintzman says is all that is needed to get the villagers mobile again.
"It's a gesture that's really attainable,"said Heintzman. "The rebuilding of the homes is definitely a priority but you can only do so much at once with regards to that. We don't want that to take away from the building of the homes, but at the same time it's a neat project."
So far SORCA has pledged proceeds from a 50-50 draw, and two private individuals have donated enough for two bikes, but the fundraising has stalled, said Goodwin.
"We were hoping that more people would get on board, and they haven't yet. So now I'm thinking what I might do is set up a bunch of donation jars and take them around to the stores."
She maintains hope, however, that busy summer activities will allow groups to donate partial proceeds to the cause. Goodwin will send enough funds to buy 25 bikes at a time, and donors can look forward to viewing pictures of villagers receiving the bikes on her website. For more information go to www.squamishmountainbike.com or www.humanityvillage.org.
Individuals wanting to help out, can contact Goodwin at 604 898-1013, or e-mail [email protected].
