News
Bikes Belong forms foundation to promote bicycle safety
Carlton Reid Oct 18 2006, 9:15am
The industry-funded Bikes Belong Coalition of America has launched an affiliated foundation to support bicycle safety projects and promote children's bicycling programmes.
The Bikes Belong Foundation recently received approval from the US Internal Revenue Service and now operates as a charitable nonprofit organisation. The foundation will help increase bicycling participation by facilitating funding from other foundations, government agencies, and individuals.
The Bikes Belong Foundation already backs two projects:
* The Paul David Clark Bicycling Safety Fund focuses on improving bicycle safety, initially in Northern California. The Clark Fund is named for Paul Clark, a San Francisco cyclist who was killed in 2005 in a collision with a truck while riding near Livermore, California.
* The Safe Routes to School National Partnership, which debuted in August 2005, was created to enhance the new $600m federal Safe Routes to School program that aims to increase the number of children who pedal or walk to school. The Safe Routes to School National Partnership now includes more than 220 affiliated organisations. Bikes Belong Coalition has been the lead sponsor since its inception; the partnership now operates under the foundation umbrella.
The Bikes Belong Foundation is guided by a volunteer board of directors. Ariadne Delon Scott of Specialized has been named the foundation's first president. Patrick Seidler of WTB is vice president and Fred Clements of the National Bicycle Dealers Association is treasurer. Blair Clark, senior vice president of Smith Sport Optics, serves on the board with several other Bikes Belong Coalition directors and a number of other business and community leaders.
Bikes Belong Coalition executive director Tim Blumenthal said:
"Bicycling has so many potential allies: health and community foundations, other transportation and recreation nonprofits, government agencies, and major corporations that sell consumer products, The Bikes Belong Foundation will help us form and strengthen alliances with these groups and complement the coalition's efforts to support important bicycling programmess and projects."
