Thanks to your support, ReBicycle EkeRua is about to get bigger and better!

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We’ve got two big announcements to make. Neither of these would be possible without our incredible coordinator, Tessa, and the support of our ReBicycle EkeRua whānau, donors, volunteers and supporters. So firstly we’d like to thank you all for helping us build this little project into something quite special!

On the Go Supreme Award winners. We were very excited and humbled to be awarded the Community award, for outstanding contribution to making communities more people-friendly, at the biannual 2Walk and Cycle conference. And then completely blown away to also be awarded the Supreme Award, “for their energy and innovation into making active travel a safer and more attractive transport choice for people”. This is an awesome recognition for our whole team, as it truly is a team effort, and we are incredibly grateful to have so many generous and talented people join us on this important mahi.

Wellington Community Trust climate fund. Our second bit of news is even more exciting! On Friday we got the very exciting news that our application to WCTs new climate fund has been accepted! This signals a massive step forward for us and our bike library/workshop friends around the region. Our proposal had three parts to it: 1. Creating a facilitator role, who can help the various libraries and workshops share resources, reach more people, and help create sponsorship opportunities for funding parts and other essentials items. 2. Supporting USO Bike Ride to build a bike hub and cycling culture in Eastern Porirua. 3. Funding an electric “fix up” van and part-time mechanic to run bike fix ups at schools and events around the region. We hope these projects are going to be a game changer at making cycling a more accessible and acceptable mode of transport, and building resilience in our lower income communities. Again, it’s very humbling that we’ve been entrusted with this role. We’re very excited to be working with USO Bike Ride and Greater Wellington over the next three years to make these ideas a reality.

Business as usual. Of course, our workshop has been busy as usual, in the capable hands of Tessa and our new coordinator, Emma, who is helping us out during the busy summer season. We’ve fixed up and re-homed almost 100 bikes already this year, with 39 going out during March alone! And since starting this journey, almost 2000 bikes have been donated to us by the generous people of Wellington!  Our bike rodeo has been very busy over summer, attending events in Featherston, Upper Hutt and at schools around Wellington. We’re working more closely with the Pedal Ready cycle skills team to ensure these events have the best possible instructors available to challenge and create fun for tamariki. The portable pump track has been incredibly popular at Kahurangi School, and the tamariki at Holy Cross and Newtown schools are looking forward to it coming there way later this year. As always, our workshop is open Wednesdays, from 6-8pm. 234 Riddiford St, Newtown.