Appeal for donated bikes from Calgary cycling advocate draws big response: reports

When a simple appeal was made over social media on Jan. 26 for six bikes for the children of refugees, recently arrived in Calgary, it would have been heartwarming enough to have seen as many donations. As the Calgary Herald reported, though, the yield is likely to well outstrip the original hopes.

The outpouring of donations that followed in barely a day, the Herald noted, may run into the “hundreds.”

The original call for donations was made by Lori Beattie, a Calgary resident who, alongside a group of friends and neighbours, sponsors a Syrian family relocating to the Alberta city from a refugee tent in Lebanon. The idea—originally, at any rate—was formed when she was helping the family move into their new home, at which point their 14-year-old son, Mohamad Al Saeid, started asking about bikes when he saw a helmet. It was then that the plan took root.

After tweeting a call for donations, an avalanche quickly followed. Bike shops offered new models of what they have in stock; individuals offered to doante money; Canadian Tire, the Herald said, also got in on the idea. Local organizations in Calgary like the Alberta Bike Swap and the Good Life Community Bike Shop, reports said, took the moment as an opportunity to supply refugees the world over with hundreds of bikes, all restored by volunteers.

Like similar initiatives in Halifax, a community-wide desire to help took shape, and as Beattie recalled, that desire touched on some deep-seated, closely personal ideas of the importance of cycling.

“It’s an area people are passionate about,” Beattie told the Herald, “and they want to help.” She noted the example of one man who grew up in Atlantic Canada, himself in the grip of poverty. He offered to buy a bike to donate himself, she said, remembering how much a bike had “changed his life” while coming of age amid such difficult, poor conditions.

With the sheer volume of donations, Beattie, a cycling advocate and author, turned to the Syrian Refugee Support Group Calgary, looking for assistance with everything from clerical matters to the physical distribution of the donated bikes, a number that has grown in staggering, surprising ways. Meanwhile, Beattie has enlisted even more help in getting those bikes to their new riders, the Herald reported.

“It’s amazing,” Beattie said, reflecting on the warm, positive response.