Let's Double the Number of Women & Girls Riding Bikes Campaign!
Bikeable Communities, The California Bicycle Coaltion, Building Healthy Communities: Long Beach, Bike Long Beach, Laura Lindgren, and the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition have all come together to help sponsor the "Let's Double the Number of Women & Girls Riding Bikes" campaign. Interested in helping? Click here for our sponsorship levels.
Campaign Overview
On February 8, 2012 Women On Bikes SoCal launched “Let’s Double the Number of Women & Girls Riding Bikes” with a fundraising campaign to create 12 new highly trained female bicycle safety instructors to serve the Southern California region. For this first training scholarship women were selected from the greater South Bay, South L.A., East L.A. and greater Long Beach - all areas that are greatly in need of well qualified female bicycle safety trainers committed to community service.
The women selected are passionate about bicycle advocacy, bicycle safety, and helping to promote safe active living for their particular community. A criteria of the scholarship is that each will donate 25 hours of bicycle safety community service back to their local community. The women will be participating in a comprehensive bicycle safety training program created by The League of American Bicyclists, the gold standard of bicycle safety training program in this U.S. We will be profiling each candidate on our website. Please click here to read more about the very talented women selected.
Women Are Dramatically Underrepresented Among Bicyclists
Currently, women are dramatically underrepresented among bicyclists in the United States. According to a new report from the Alliance for Biking & Walking released in January— Bicycling and Walking in the United States: 2012 Benchmarking Report —women represent just 24 percent of bicycle trips in the U.S. This underrepresentation is particularly striking in Southern California: In Long Beach, just 15 percent of bike-to-work commuters are women and in Los Angeles just 20 percent are women.
A Comprehensive Plan
The “Let’s Double the Women & Girls Riding Bikes” campaign has been developed to not only provide Southern California with new highly trained female bicycle instructors, but to help create the next wave of active living advocates well prepared to inspire, motivate and train those interested in living a healthier, well-balance and enjoyable life. The women selected for this training program will also receive bicycle advocacy training with top active living advocate Charlie Gandy.
Finally, Women on Bikes SoCal will work with the women selected for Long Beach to create an innovative pilot program to create low cost/no cost, time effecient bicycle safety training for those most in need of the bike as a smart, cost effective urban transit tool for mobility independence.
Fundraising Goal
To host the bicycle safety instructors program and advocacy training the goal is to raise $10,000 by the end of September 2012. Please join us in making this program a reality. To request a sponsorship benefits kit for a specific amount please contact Melissa Balmer at (562) 612-0197 or via email at wobsocal@gmail.com. Or simply click here to pay for a sponsorship online quickly and conveniently with Paypal. Thank you for your interest and enthusiasm!
Thank You to Our Campaign Launch Sponsors!