Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends -- hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism -- these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world; duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
--Barack Obama
Now, what will YOU do? Here are some philanthropic, bicycle-related ideas:
Find out how you can get involved in bicycle advocacy through the Cascade Bicycle Club (Seattle), the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (Oregon), the Bicycle Alliance of Washington (WA State), or the League of American Bicyclists (USA).
Start attending your local Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee meetings.
Start a cycling team that advertises charities instead of corporations.
Join a bike tour and raise money to fight disease.
Start a local bike ride to raise funds for cycling safety.
Put on a backyard bicycle maintenance and traffic riding skills workshop for your friends, neighbors and co-workers and encourage them to bike commute.
Get that bike out of the garage and find a community bicycle shop that recycles bicycles into the hands of those that need them.
Get out there!
