Are you a shop looking to attract a new crew of customers? Or a cyclist just looking for somewhere safe to store your cycle? Well, businesses and bike-lovers alike should be paying attention to the grand plans of Bikes Welcome.
Bikes Welcome is a charitable trust focused on making businesses more bike-friendly, because regular bike use is great for people, health, business, communities and the environment. They want to help businesses recognise and value their cycling customers, and help councils, bike-users and businesses connect and work together to create change. The first step? Better bike parking.
They’ve already received some grant funding, but they’re turning to their crowd now to help roll out their plans all across NZ. If they hit their target, then they can design, print, and post window stickers out to Bikes Welcome businesses, to signal to cyclists which shops are on their side. The more money they raise, the more great, cycle-friendly things they can achieve. And what’s more, they have some fantastic rewards on offer – everything from Thunderpants to Pic’s Peanut Butter!
We wanted to find out more about why you should be getting in gear with Bikes Welcome, so we had a chat with team member Jo:
How are you finding the campaign so far?
This is day one, so nerve wracking would be one answer! Others answers would include: inspiring (thanks awesome people), exhausting (yes, there is a lot of work involved, and why did I decide to do this in the school holidays? it just confirms that I’m kind of nuts). It has also been stretching (taking me outside my comfort zone) and stimulating (learning new things and meeting new people). But I’ll go back to nerve wracking because this is a big huge leap of faith, faith that there are enough people out there who believe in what Bikes Welcome want to achieve, faith that we can connect with them and inspire them to be part of it. Yep, in the words of the late George Michael, ‘you gotta have faith’. Faith…… and a wonder-woman costume.
What do you have planned for the rest of the campaign – anything for us to look forward to?
I’d like to summon up creative genius and add a cool reward for bike users who want something that makes the statement ‘yes, I bike’. Not sure what it will be yet…. all suggestions are most welcome! And it is just possible I’ll drag out the wonder woman costume again if I need to shake things up. Maybe I can get people to pledge for me NOT to wear it? And I’d like the #yesIbike tag to take off, so look out for your chance to have a play with that.
Anything you’d like to shout out to your crowd?
Thank you! Thanks awesome people for helping spread the word and supporting Bike Welcome, for your faith, ideas and feedback, positive words and wisdom. And thanks to my understanding kids and husband for all their support. And in the words of Dr Seus’s Lorax “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” So keep on being the change you want to see in this world.
To find out more about Bikes Welcome and act on the words of the Lorax, take a look at their campaign right here.
