I try to avoid CNN.com. I try because every time I hit that site, I find some news story that is so heart-wrenching that I end up sick to my stomach. But, like a bad car accident, I can't help slowing down to look at the carnage. I'm a sick puppy.
But today, I found this nice little gem about a man who sends used bicycles to developing countries. One man making a difference. I love that kind of shit. Instead of slowing down to look at wreckage, I pulled over to see the rainbow.
Pretty corny analogy, but it's early.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Good News Saturday
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7 comments:
Thanks for the link - nice little story!
Burbs, what a way to kick off my weekend! I love this stuff. This is exactly the kind of solutions that we need and that we can easily do. I think we should lobby Washington HARD but in the meantime, we can't wait for others to get their act together. What an inspiration.
That was a beautiful analogy!
Truly an uplifting news article.
I had seen a TV spot years ago about a little old man that refurbished bikes in his garage, and "lent" them, like a library, to kids who didn't have bikes.
Bike Libraries are a fab idea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_cycling#Free_bicycle.2FShort_term_hire_schemes
Your just a big old softie. Join my club LOL. A favorite charity of mine is bikes for tykes of puget sound whose purpose is to provide bicycles for children and adults who cannot afford them. We rebuild donated bicycles, and provide them to organizations around the Puget Sound for deployment -- free of charge. They are a local chapter of Bikes for tykes org. they take old bikes fix them up and donate them to kids and asults who cannot afford a bike in their local area.
There are rainbows out there. You just have to hunt a bit harder these days.
Let me tell you a quick little story. Several years ago, my sweetie saw an ad for 2 dozen bikes & parts for $200. He was thinking about a bike business at the time, so went and bought the lot. It turned out to be 18 bikes, plus a HUGE quantity of wheels, dry-rotted tires, and boxes and boxes of parts. Took us multiple trips to get it all (should've just rented a UHaul!)
He sorted through all of it and found some fancy gear that he sold on ebay, earning back twice the money. He used some parts to build a bike or two, and sold some of the frames. The rest sat around for months until he finally admitted he couldn't use it all.
We donated much of it to Bikes Across Borders to go to Mexico to give transportation options to poor folks there, as well as supplies to build bike trailers. The rest went to a local non-profit bike repair & recycling collective. We were happier about the donations than about the money we'd made on the whole deal.
Not too long after that, I did much the same thing with a lot of 976 cookbooks. Most of them ended up at the Friends of the Library and a couple of other non-profits. I didn't keep a single one! (And didn't double my money either, but I had fun.)
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