Bicycles are playing a part in helping people who found their lives turned inside-out by Hurricane Katrina.
Clubs are offering fund-raising rides, businesses are offering jobs, and both are collecting and distributing free bicycles (left) to give refugees from the storm a set of wheels to get from one place to another.
There are even stories of people who used bikes to escape the destruction. The blogger at Cyclelicious found a story in the Lamar Daily News about cyclist Sherwood Hunter and his dog. After being rescued in Mobile, Ala., the pair made their way to Kansas where Hunter was given a bicycle that he used to take them to Lamar, Colorado. We've already written about Kim Mason, who bicycled 80 miles to Baton Rouge from the Convention Center in New Orleans.
Fund-raisers are being held across the US. Here in the Pacific Northwest, the Cascade Bicycle Club reports that $15,000 to $20,000 was raised for the American Red Cross relief efforts when 800 riders, including 120 children, registered for Sunday's Cascade Spawning Cycle in Seattle. The Bike Line store in Indiana also held a fund-raiser bike ride over the weekend.
The National Bike Dealers Association took a unique tack on helping; members posted job opportunities for hurricane victims on the NBDA website:
“The devastation of hurricane Katrina has left many bicycle retail employees in need of help. Numerous bicycle retailers outside the damaged area have offered to provide temporary employment, support and in some cases housing to help those in need. Below is a list of those who have volunteered to help.”
The St. Petersburg Times reported on this and other efforts by bicycle shops along Florida's Gulf Coast.
Texas always does things in a big way, and that holds true for a bicycle drive in Austin. The Bicycle Sport Shop sought donations of bicycles to distribute to folks who had been relocated into Texas from the stricken Gulf Coast region. The website reports that residents donated nearly 1,000 bicycles (right) earlier in the month and some of those bikes already have been passed out at the SuperDome in Houston (pictured above) and to shelters in Austin.
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