Cycling the Holiday Spirit

My wife and I have learned in recent years that few things fill us with as much holiday spirit and joy as contributing to causes that help others truly in need. This year, for instance, our chosen charities are the local food bank and the "Subs for Santa" program, through which we purchased gifts for an entire, anonymous family. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming total altruism: we're also buying ourselves that long-awaited widescreen TV and a few other goodies.)

If you, too, like the idea of helping out others less fortunate than you during the holidays, you might consider doing so with a cycling twist. Among the many bicycle-related charities out there are these:

Trips for Kids. Operating approximately sixty chapters in the U.S., Canada, and Israel, this bunch has opened the world of cycling to more than 50,000 at-risk youth through organized mountain-bike rides.

ACIRFA. That's Africa spelled backward, and they're "Turning Africa Around One Bike at a Time." It's one of numerous nonprofits striving to get more bicycles and bicycle enterprises into the reaches of impoverished rural Africa.

Bikes Not Bombs. This nonprofit promotes bicycle technology as an alternative to war and environmental destruction. For a quarter century, the group has served as a nexus of bike recycling and community empowerment, from the lower income neighborhoods of Boston to poor nations in the Southern Hemisphere.

Pedals for Progress. Since 1991, this organization has shipped nearly 125,000 used bicycles from the U.S. to partner charities in more than thirty developing nations.

Yield to Life. Launched by professional bike racer and Utahan David Zabriskie -- who himself has been hit by cars while cycling in the U.S. three too many times -- Yield to Life strives to "promote positive attitudes toward cyclists and replace any hostility that exists between motorists and cyclists with understanding, respect, and appreciation for all life on the road."

If you like this idea, but would prefer to help out on a more local level, check with a bicycle club, recreation program, or bike shop in your community to learn if there's a program you can donate to that will get bicycles (or helmets, or adventures ...) into the hands of more kids and adults.

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BIKING WITHOUT BORDERS is posted every Monday by Michael McCoy, Adventure Cycling’s field editor, and highlights a little bit of this or a little bit of that — just about anything, as long as it’s related to traveling by bicycle.