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Welcome to Velo Vision magazine, covering specialised bikes, cycling as transport and human power. It's a quarterly dose of cycle inspiration.The current issue is Issue 12. The next issue is out early March 2004.
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Re-cycle celebrate another cracking yearThe recycled-bikes-to-Africa charity reports on bumper shipments, funding and partnership successes, and more... This is an exceptionally worthwhile charity, and their recent newsletter merits repeating in full. If you're looking for a deserving recipient of your Christmas charity donation, look no further. Also check their website at www.re-cycle.org. ******* Dear friends of Re~Cycle, Welcome back to the Re-Cycle newsletter. You may not have heard from us for a while but we have been very busy. This year Re-Cycle has shipped over 1,750 bikes in five 40ft containers to South Africa. The containers have included bikes of all shapes and sizes, spare parts, new parts donated by bike shops and manufacturers, tyres, lights, refurbished tools for new workshops, a couple of computers and even some new medical shoes. And last, but certainly not least, the wonderful red, post bikes kindly donated by the Royal Mail - pictures of happy children enjoying these in South Africa can be found on our website www.re-cycle.org. Our heartfelt thanks to all those people who kindly gave their time to bring us bikes and tools and helped us to load the containers - without you all it wouldn't happen. A CHRISTMAS APPEAL As Christmas approaches we are all busy buying presents, but please remember, if you know someone getting a new bike for Christmas, there is someone in a less developed country who would be very, very happy to receive an old one. £10 will pay for the transport of one bike to Africa. Our two main targets are students and health workers. Your £10 will ship one bicycle to a health worker visiting villages to help in the fight against HIV/AIDS or a scholar who has a 9-mile journey to school. PLEASE help Re-Cycle send someone a bicycle - not just for Christmas, but also to change their life. Two important ways that you can help us with fundraising are firstly, to please make sure you sign a Gift Aid form if you make a donation. This enables Re-Cycle to claim a further 28% back from the taxman, at no further cost to the donor. Please ask us for a Gift Aid form. Secondly, GAYE - Give As You Earn (also known as Payroll Giving) is an easy and tax effective method for individuals to give to charity direct from their pay. The money is deducted before tax therefore someone giving £10 a month only contributes £7.60 from his or her pay. The Government gives a further 10% of the donation, and in some instances the employer may add to the donation. Employees can give up to £100 a month to charity. FINANCIAL SUPPORT Following the Lottery Grant received in 1999, Re~Cycle was awarded the first "Upstart Award", run by the New Statesman and Centrica, worth £15,000 and a grant of £13,000 from the Ashden Trust (one of the Sainsbury Charities). A donation of £5,000 has also been received from the J G Joffe Trust and Safmarine continues to give us generous discounted shipping rates to South Africa. The Essex Environmental Trust which distributes the local Landfill Tax Credit Scheme have just awarded us a grant of £50,000 to enable us to continue and expand the collection points in Essex as well as develop Re~Cycle nationally. This grant is only for one year as the funding regime for the Landfill Scheme is due to change. NEW PARTNERSHIPS This year has seen the development of new partnerships, one of the most exciting being with the Inside Out Trust - a charity working in HM Prisons. At the Chelmsford workshop young offenders learn to refurbish bicycles and they have now started working on our Royal Mail bikes prior to shipping. They hope, soon, to have a container based inside the prison, which they will fill and ship directly for us. We also receive help from The Probation Service in Colchester, with young men working community service hours helping us to prepare and load bikes into the shipping container. Our latest partnership is with the Youth Offending Team. Their supervisor, an experienced bike mechanic, accompanies small groups of young offenders to our Bike Barn where he teaches them to strip old bikes of usable spare parts. This not only helps Re-Cycle, but hopefully might encourage an ongoing interest in bikes and how to maintain them. SUPPORTERS Early in 2002, Daniel James opened a Re-Cycle collecting centre on the Isle of Wight. He soon collected over 100 bikes, but getting them delivered to our barn in Essex proved a problem. This was neatly resolved when Mercy Ships, a charity that operates hospital ships around the coast of Africa, contacted us requesting some bikes to take out to Africa. Their ship, the m.v.Anastasis, was docking in Avonmouth in September and, with the generous help of Somerfield Stores on the Isle of Wight, the bikes were transported to the ship free of charge. Sadly, Dan has had to close the collecting point for now, but we hope he will be able to open again in the future. During the summer we had two groups of supporters who undertook sponsored bicycle rides between Lands End and John O'Groats. First to complete the 1,000 miles from 'end to end' were Sarah Green and Paul Hayward, who started in Scotland, then Howard Spencer and his son Ed left from Lands End in July. Ed celebrated his 16th birthday en route. Also in July, Jan Misiewicz completed the 'Dunwich Dynamo', a 120-mile annual overnight ride from Hackney, London to Dunwich on the Suffolk coast - ending up with fish and chips on the beach! In July, Justin Abbott cycled the Etape du Tour. This is an event, in which amateurs are invited to ride a day stage selected from that year's Tour de France a few days before the professionals. These are usually mountain stages, as these are considered to be the most representative of the "legend" of the Tour. This year it was the 140km Aime to Cluses stage in the Alps, and contained some long climbs (up and down four alps). Brave man, Justin. Well done to all these magnificent people who between them raised over £5,000 for Re~Cycle. NEW COLLECTION SITES The demand for bikes continues to grow and we receive calls from many less developed countries. Meanwhile, bikes in good condition are still being thrown away in the UK, we are therefore working hard to set up new collecting points and aim to have two new sites opening in 2003, in London and Bristol.
PUBLICITY This year saw the production of our first printed leaflet, giving details of Re-Cycle and how it operates. Our thanks go to Caroline McCann for donating her lively design and artwork. Contact us if you need copies to help with publicity or fundraising. This summer we held two successful local events. On Bank Holiday Monday we had a collecting point at the Colchester Free Festival - resulting in 30 bikes and several welcome donations. In October we attended the Freshers' Fair at Essex University where we sold some refurbished bikes, donated by the Crest Cooperative in North Wales, raising some much needed funds towards shipping, at the same time promoting cycling and the local cycling group. Contact us if you need help with promotional events or have any good ideas for publicising Re~Cycle. OFFICE In January 2002, Sue Lockyear joined Re~Cycle full time as an administrator, helping to organise the office and give Merlin more time to link with beneficiaries, look at new locations for collecting points and most importantly, research new funding opportunities. THANKS Our thanks go to you all for giving your time and donations. Without you it wouldn't happen. We love you all and look forward to seeing you again in 2003. -- WISHING YOU ALL JOYFUL TIDINGS AND A PEACEFUL NEW YEAR ******** Posted on 20 December 2002 Your comments ...
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