It is a privilege to announce that with the help of Naples Velo, Tish Kelly, and yours truly (Matt Sonneborn, Race Director) an effort is launching to help those in need in our County. The Re~cycle project wants to re-purpose your gently used bicycle equipment for those in need here in Collier County.
While the Gobble Gobble Four Miler™ champions green initiatives through cup free racing and encouraging participants to ride their bike to the race, we are very aware of the current local bicycle safety issues. One of the “hot spots” for accidents in Naples is near one of our charity recipients, St Matthew’s House.
Residents of St Matthew’s House must often utilize bikes as their principal form of transportation. We want to make sure that this necessity is also safe choice. A great start to this is providing them with helmets, ways to be visible, using lights at night, and bikes that are well maintained. We are asking people to donate your gently used bicycle equipment for those in need in Collier County. This could be anything from helmets and chains to pedals and wheels. There are many in need in our community to consider: many depend on their bikes for transportation to work, commuting during hours without daylight.
Look for the bins at most area bicycle shops within the week. Trek Bicycles of Naples managing our bike valet once again this year and sponsoring the Gobble Gobble.
We will also collect these items at Packet Pickup at Fit2Run and at the Gobble Gobble race day at Venetian Village. As always if you have canned goods or can take a look at their current needs page here! Please do bring an item for St Matthew’s House and we’ll make sure and get it to them after the race.
The bigger conversation we need to have on bike safety will be ongoing. Our state has the unfortunate ranking of being the worst and deadliest in that category at that moment. Let’s remember to give our friends and neighbors out there a couple of extra seconds to pass safely and respectfully in a motor vehicle. To cyclists, let’s continue to be smart, courteous and respectful so we can be good “spokespeople.” We can all learn a bit more about what the laws in place are.
Let’s show them that Naples cares! Pitch in that gently used old gear to make a potentially life changing difference.