About Us
Early one Sunday morning a little over 8 months ago I got a text from a barrister friend of mine. It was a screen grab of a facebook post from a Ukrainian woman. She was staying in the Hilton hotel in Swords and had just got her two kids in to a school which was a 45 minute walk away. There was no public transport and she was looking for someone to help her get two bikes for her kids. My friend ‘suggested’ that I give them three bikes. I WhatsApp’d this woman right away and said that I would give her three of my own bikes. When I brought the bikes out to the hotel I was pretty blown away with the effect it had on all three of them. Quite profound actually. I knew on my cycle back to the shop that morning that I was going to have to do something for the Ukrainian’s fleeing the war.
I spoke with my partner, Kelly, that evening and we decided that we would put a call out to the Ukrainian community and see if there was a need for bikes for other families. Over 5,000 emails and 1,500 bikes later here we are. The need for bikes within this community is huge.
Word reached the Ukrainian Ambassador about what we were doing, and she, along with the Dutch Ambassador, came to our shop a few months ago when we were presenting the 500th bike (to a Ukrainian mother, who has been using the bike several times a day since).
Since then we have added another 1,000 bikes to that 500. The courier company, DPD, are now on-board and they deliver three bikes every day to literally the four corners of the country. There are Ukrainian refugees all over Ireland who now have bikes because Des rang us one day and said, ‘what can we do to help?’ – so a big shout out to the CEO of DPD, Des Travers.
The Red Cross is now assisting us logistically and financially, so that’s a big help. And we still have a tiny army of volunteers collecting bikes and delivering bikes for us. We have incorporated ‘The Good Bike Project’ (company number 727187) and have put a board of directors in place.
Our goal is to give away 2,500 bikes in the next 12 months. Each bike costs approximately €100 to check, repair and prepare for a deserving person. Please help us achieve our goal by donating today.
