Kona BikeTown Africa

More Amazing Letters and Generous Donations

So, I should point out, there's no way I can post all the letters we get. The same is true of giving props to everyone who donates to the AfricaBike program. I'm selecting donations and letters at random of the many, many we receive. I'm certainly going to be carrying a ton of stickers over to Namibia for the bike frames!

Something that struck me is that we're getting donations from such a diverse group; from individuals, to corporations, to universities, and many other people and places. It's really great to see.

To illustrate this, I've posted two of the more recent letters...

Awesome. (Elizabeth, your sticker is fine. Way to represent NYC!)

This will likely be the last post before the AfricaBike/BikeTown Africa crew meets up in Namibia. If I have access to the Internet (not to mention a computer), I'll try to post from the scene. If not, check back on August 7th, when I'll post pictures and stories from Namibia.

Rodale Spreads The Word

And the word is AfricaBike...or is that two words?

Anyway, here's the release Rodale's PR magician, Josephine Parr, put out today.

Sweet.

Generous Donation from Engaged Couple

Today we received a letter from Carrie Kandasamy and Marc Schneider, a couple of love-birds from California who are set to tie the knot in October.

Carrie and Marc have adopted 10 AfricaBikes in celebration of their upcoming wedding. That's $1,000 they've donated to the cause!

Here's a copy of their letter:

We continue to be amazed at people's generosity and support for this project. I know I'll be slapping lots of stickers on AfricaBikes next week, and I'll be sure to take pictures of adopted bikes to send to supporters of the program!

David Brienza Rallies the Troops

We recently received an email from our man David Brienza over at Bristol-Myers Squibb telling us he'd collected $3,000 in donations and bike adoption funds from friends and family who want to support the AfricaBike project!

David is a tireless promoter of the project, and thanks to his persuasion and generosity (he donated $550 himself) and the generous donations of his crew, 12 more AfricaBikes will be sponsored and $1,800 will go towards supporting the project!

The new donors are listed to the right of this post on the sidebar.

A big thanks to everyone who pitched in! You rock!

Bikes Cleared Through Customs

Just heard from UTI the bikes have cleared customs in Namibia.

It's almost go time!

Status Report from Bones

We just received an update from our wrench in the trenches, Karabo 'Bones' Moletsane. He's the man we've tasked with maintaining AfricaBikes in Botswana and teaching clinics on bike repair to AfricaBike riding health care workers.

According to Bones, sounds like things are going well for the most part, with a few small hiccups along the way.

It's good to hear of people's support for Bones and the AfricaBike project.

Nice work, Bones. Hats off to you.

AfricaBike T-Shirts

We just got back from Kona's 2008 product launch in Winter Park, CO, where we had a good look at Kona's new line of Kona Clothing, and it's sweet!

Kona's own Michelle Gault has put together a great collection, including the new for 2008 Kona AfricaBike T-Shirt, which will become available early next year. We thought we'd give you a sneak peak here...

Awesome!

The artwork is courtesy of Fighting Design Co., out of Toronto. Thanks for being involved in the project, guys!

The shirts are part of the new Kona Organics collection, which uses all organic cotton and vegetable based dyes. The shirts will retail for $30 US, and all profits will go right back into the AfricaBike project. Nice!

DePauw University makes us proud

Indiana's DePauw University dropped us an email a while back asking us if they could buy 100 (count 'em, 100) AfricaBikes to serve as 'community bikes' for their campus of about 2,300 students. But, here's the catch, they wanted to use the bikes to promote the theme of 'Art and the Environment', so they asked for them to come painted only with primer. That way, the students could decorate the bikes however they wanted as environmentally friendly art. We said, 'Sweet!'

So, DePauw puts on an 11-day arts festival in October, and the painted bikes will be introduced to the community during a parade. We can't wait to see pictures.

And, this means 50 bikes are going to Africa courtesy of DePauw. Nice!