Sandra and Seb displaying their Bicycles for Humanity plaque and matching t-shirts

 The snowball effect has begun! Seb Oran and Sandra Gattola were introduced to me by Mark Rehder. It was a real treat to meet with these two impeccable women. Oran and Gattola are the founders of the Ottawa chapter of Bicycles for Humanity. An organization that works on providing sustainable transportation to communities in need, their main focus has been Namibia and will be expanding to Malawi in association with Aficycle [http://www.africycle.org/] for the upcoming spring container! 

To receive up to date information on Bicycles for Humanity the Ottawa chapter, check out the webpage [http://www.bicycles-for-humanity.org/Ottawa/index.php] and be sure to sign up for their email subscription! 

Take a gander over the discussion we had! 

Q. How did you two originally meet? 

A. Gattola: “Seb and I have known each other since 1997. We’re both from Montreal, we met in Montreal and we came to know each other through work colleagues. I ended up moving here and shortly thereafter Seb moved here as well. Our friendship just blossomed through the years and we always felt so fortunate. That’s how we came to say ‘Well, it’s time we gave back’ and that’s how our search has led us to Bicycles for Humanity. That’s our story. We used to commute from Montreal to Ottawa together and through the years got to know each other and became really good friends and thought ‘Why not? Let’s give this a shot!’’ 

 Q. What originally got you interested in restoring bicycles to provide sustainable transportation to communities in need? 

 A. Oran: “Sandra and I were looking for something to do to give back to the community somehow. In one May there was an article we read in the Ottawa citizen about how a bike can make a difference in an African child’s life. That started the idea and  [by] doing some internet research we found Bicycles for Humanity which actually started in 2005 by a man in British Columbia, Pat Montani. After talking to him we decided ‘Why buy one bike when we can empower an entire community in Ottawa and Gatineau to help another community in Africa?’ So we started Bicycles for Humanity the Ottawa chapter. Essentially every year we have a goal of doing at least one container which is called a Bicycle Empowerment Centre (BEC), 400 bikes, mountain bikes plus spare parts and tools and whatever else the community needs. We collect those, we raise the funds to ship them and our entire container goes over there. The container becomes a building, which becomes a bicycle workshop. Four to five people are trained and they get trained for four weeks on bicycle mechanics. Some of the bikes are given to orphans for schooling and some of the bikes are given to health care workers. Than the rest are fixed up and sold. The proceeds go right back into the project that the community is working on. It’s all sustainable this way. We create employment, we give access to transportation and we do it again every year.” 

 Q. On the Bicycles for Humanity webpage the main slogan that is first visible is ‘a bike can change a life,’ how is this statement relevant? How can a bicycle change a person’s life? 

 A. Oran: “Here in North America or the western world we ride bikes for pleasure. Some of us (not us) ride to commute and actually use [a bike as a form of] transportation. But in other parts  of the world where people rely on their feet to get from place to place, in rural Africa specifically, there’s no option you can only go to where you can walk to and that limits your capabilities in terms of getting to a doctor, to getting to a school, to getting into work. Give someone a simple affordable bicycle and all of a sudden people are mobile. People are getting to jobs that are further away, they can get to medical care and they can go to school. It starts to develop the community economically. That’s how we say ‘a bike can change a life.’ It can improve a life and in some cases it [can] save [a] life.” 

 Q. What is the best part about providing bicycles to the people in need? 

 A. Gattola: “The sheer joy that is gives. Seb and I had the pleasure to go there 2008 and just to see their faces and actually see these bicycles and how their using them. I don’t know it’s just incredible, the feeling that it gives and it really does change their lives and they are really, really grateful for it.” 

 Oran: “When we went, we went to visit our first container, it had been six months since it had been on the ground and operating, we had seen many pictures because we work with partners over there and we get pictures from them. When we got to that scene it took us 42 hours travelling in the air and in the air ports and nine hours by car to get to the border of Angola and Namibia. We saw that scene and it was just as if we were thrown into the middle of the pictures because it felt so familiar. What was amazing is that we saw with our own eyes that with the income they generated by running a bike shop they were able to build their first cement building that’s housing a classroom on one side and a lounge for the teachers  that come from 10km away so they can stay overnight. This is really cool for us to see. The other cool thing is its amazing and very rewarding that halfway across the world you can help. It’s just two people orchestrating [an activity] in the community. You don’t have to be big to help. We get a real big kick out of engaging the community here. 

 Gattola: “Just meeting all kinds of different people. You hear so much negativity [it can make] you become cynical and think there are no good people out there. There are. There are tons [of good people] and that’s what really brought it to the forefront. There are so many good people. We’re meeting all these amazing people and without the community we couldn’t do this. We’re just the catalysts. Without everybody else’s participation we wouldn’t have been possible. It’s the joy of seeing what a bicycle does and the joy that we have here at home of meeting all these amazing people. 

 Q. What is the most unique donation you have received? 

 A. Oran: “They’re very heartwarming [stories]. We actually have a lot. Our very first year a family contacted us they are from South Africa and they immigrated to Canada 20 years ago. When they immigrated [to Canada] they brought all they’re mountain bikes with them. [The bikes] weren’t really being used but they couldn’t really part with them. When they read about our program they thought what a fitting way for [they’re] bikes to go back home to serve the rest of their useful lives helping people. They had a family meeting and they discussed, ‘Is this what we want to do with the bikes?’ and they showed up on loading day with their four bikes to hand them over.” 

“There was another lady. I communicated with her for two years. She wanted to give us her bike but she wasn’t quite ready to give it up. She’d write to me ‘That’s it I’m bringing it next weekend,’ that weekend would come and [she would say] ‘Oh, I’m not ready.’ This went on for two years! Finally, she was ready. She painted her bike, she paid to have it all fixed up and we went to go pick it up and she said goodbye to her bicycle. She’s had it for forty years! But her bike is now being used by a student. There’s tons of bike stories like that. A lot of emotional [stories].”    

 “There [are] stories about people riding their bikes for decades and then you have stories that are sad and very heartwarming stories. Last year a women, she lives an hour away from Ottawa, found out about us. Her son was an avid cyclist. He passed away two years ago in [his] thirties. She had been keeping his bike as a memory and she thought ‘He would have absolutely loved the idea that his bike would serve as a purpose.’ So she drove an hour in to give me her bike, very emotional. It was a top of the line mountain bike and she was just so happy that finally she could put this to rest.” 

 Gattola: “Two years back we were at the Rideau Canal festival and we were collecting bicycles on site and this older gentleman rode his bike to confederation park and he came to see me and said ‘Is this the place?’ and I said ‘Absolutely’ and he dismounted his bike and he kind of brought it into the container and gave the seat a punch and said ‘You take care of my girl.’ He had taken it from England to Canada. He had it since he was a boy and it was still in amazing condition. He had obviously taken good care of it and loved it. And it was just like he was parting with an old friend.”  

 For more donation stories check out Bicycles for Humanity Facebook page under the Notes section: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bicycles-for-Humanity-Ottawa/97126179826#!/pages/Bicycles-for-Humanity-Ottawa/97126179826?v=app_2347471856

Q.  Have you done any bicycle touring?

A. Oran: “People are usually surprised to find out that we are not cyclists but it doesn’t matter to us. [A bicycle] is a tool of empowerment. That’s all a bicycle is. It could be a book, it could be a pencil. In this case it’s a bicycle. Pencils would have been easier to ship.”

Remi takes a pose with his longboard labeled 'Concrete Surfers'

Meet Remi Perron a longboarding fanatic. I met Remi through a friend and as soon as he mentioned he was the founder and President of Concrete Surfers (a longboarding club at the University of Ottawa -http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=78336135570&ref=ts) I felt he deserved some recognition for creating a club where he could inform the curious about an activity that is a competitive sport for some. Over tea and scones we discussed his passion for longboarding.

 Q. Is longboarding considered to be a recreational activity or a sport?

A. “Depending on how you long board it can be either a sport or recreational activity. [It] depends on the intensity. It’s the same way [that] biking can be a recreational activity or a sport. You [have] your recreational long boarders that just kind of carve around and have fun. But you also [have] people that are sponsored by longboarding companies and associations to actually [compete in sporting] events and are expected to perform to a certain level. For example, there is International Gravity Sports Association [http://www.igsaworldcup.com/] where there [is] quite intense downhill races where a good amount of money [is] being won and a good amount of praise. It depends on your type of longboarding.”

 Q. How do you begin an interest in such a sport that is not necessarily known by the masses?

A. “A lot of people find out about longboarding through skateboarding and make the association  that it will be just as hard as skateboarding. Wrong. Completely wrong [longboarding is] a lot easier. It is a lot more stable than a skateboard. The best way to get an interest in it is really just trying it out. There’s a bunch of videos online, you can look up to spur your interest. You see [the long boarders] around town and that’s the best way to gather interest is to see something new and something original.”

 Q. What is a longboarding skate?

A. “A friend of mine owns Benmore Longboards [http://benmorelongboards.wordpress.com/] they make their own long boards. For the past couple of years they have been dabbling into what they call the ‘Benmore Blades’. They are tiny skates that you put onto your skate track instead of wheels and you can go skating with your board. I have already done it once on the canal. It’s really, really cool. It’s a completely unique idea, nobody’s ever done it before. It’s kind of an ego boost because everyone is watching you. But it is really one of the most interesting things I have seen in longboarding for a long time. They are completely unique all over the world. Before even making them [Benmore Boards] made sure that no one had already come up with the idea. So no one in the world that he or I know have patented this idea before. It is completely new [and] completely Ottawa based.”

 Q. What inspired you to create the Concrete Surfers longboarding club at the University of Ottawa?

A. “During my first year of university I had started looking into longboarding. I hadn’t started [longboarding] yet but my friends [had] and I was using their long boards. The summer after my first year I finally got my first board. Once I got back on campus, [during] clubs fair I saw a whole bunch of longboards all over campus and I thought to myself, ‘My friends and I always do the same hill over and over again and it would be great to know about other hills but no one wants to check out other hills and be disappointed.’ What better way to figure out new places [to longboard and] to meet new people that know [about] new places. I thought the best way to do that was to create a club.” 

 Q. What does your role as president of the longboarding club require you to do?

A. “The role as president of the longboarding club requires me to organize activities such as a concert, general longboarding runs and sessions in downtown Ottawa. It also requires me to enlighten people about longboarding and show people what longboarding is and define longboarding. Basically [the main role is] just keeping everyone happy and interested in longboarding.”

 Q. What do you hope the Concrete Surfers longboarding club will accomplish?

A. “I want [the longboarding club] to have deals with companies to get sponsorships and help the longboarding club members [receive] discounts. [Also, the club aims] to help the members and create more awareness for longboarding. There is going to be a bike co-op on [University of Ottawa] campus next year, and I am probably going to start talking to them and maybe [arrange to] have once a month [or] once every two months a longboarding co-op. Where people can come and tune up their longboards and make sure they are taking good care of [their longboard]. That’s one thing that a lot of people don’t know about is how to take care of a longboard.”

 Q. What are the future goals of concrete surfers?

A. “I would love to start seeing the concrete surfers going to Toronto every year for the big skate meets that they have every year [Check out their website http://toronto.theboardmeeting.net/] . Last year I think over 400 people showed up on longboards and took over downtown Toronto. That’s very cool. I would really like to see Ottawa maybe even have their own event like that. Also, decriminalizing longboarding. Decriminalizing longboarding would be a great success.”

 Q. Could you further explain the issue of longboarding being illegal in Ottawa?

A. “Right now, unofficially longboarding is illegal the same way that kids smoking is illegal. [By-Law 2003-530, Clauses 77 & 84 http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/bylaw/a_z/traffic/part_a_en.html#playing] I’m not allowed to coast, I am allowed to stay on my board. I am allowed to cross the street on my board but I am not allowed to actually go down the street, I am not allowed on the sidewalk either, I am not allowed in public property, private property. Without really making it illegal you’re pretty much giving me no choice but to cross the street with my long board. So I would like to see in the near future petitions or some sort of activity going on to decriminalize [longboarding] to make it legal. I would love to not have to pay fines or to stop longboarding when I see a police officer. I think the biggest issue with that is the stereotype that we get [as] skateboarders and longboarders [as] rebellious youth. I find that yes at some point [longboarders and skateboarders] might have been [a rebellious youth] but that generation has grown up, and because of that I find that the new generation of skateboarders and  long boarders really aren’t looking to fight ‘the man’ in the same way that they used to. We’re really looking to enjoy ourselves and just have a good time and [longboarding] legally.”

 Q. What advice would you give to someone that is looking to get involved in the community?

A. “The first step is really the hardest step, and it’s just thinking of a good idea, or joining someone that already has a good idea. I think that is the biggest issue. A lot of people either undermine their own ideas or undermine themselves and don’t give themselves enough credit to actually go out there and do something. It’s really not hard. My advice would be to seriously think about doing something and once you have an idea actually doing it. Asking friends for help is completely legit. And I have had my friends help me the whole way.

 Q. If it was to rain tomorrow and you were to decide what it would rain, what would it rain?

A. “Bubble wrap, biggest stress relief ever is definitely popping bubble wrap.  Not just the tiny ones, I’m talking the big bubbles, the two thumb crisp bubble bursting feeling sounds. The overall sense of accomplishment every time you pop one of those bubbles. Just walking on the street and popping bubbles while you’re walking. Longboarding on bubble wrap would be difficult but interesting.”

Mark Rehder fixing up a bike at re-Cycles

Mark Rehder is the director at bicycle co-op re-Cycles [http://www.re-cycles.ca/] located at 477 Bronson Avenue. re-Cycles offers the opportunity to meet inspiring people with similar interests, such as Rehder. I originally met Rehder volunteering at re-Cycles. When volunteering I would see Rehder consistently going out of his way to help people with their damaged bicycles, whether it was frequent volunteers or customers that had no prior knowledge about bicycles. Rehder had no problem putting down his work to ensure that a volunteer/customer would get the most out of their visit to re-Cycles. re-Cycles is a remarkable place to go and learn about the nuts and bolts of a bicycle.

 Q. What originally got you involved in community volunteer initiatives?

A. “When I was a kid my mom used to do some volunteer work. She used to volunteer in the local library. She used to go and volunteer there at least once a week and look after things. I remember [being] ten years old [and not understanding how] you don’t get paid for work. I think that was the original example [of] just watching my mum do that. Stuff needs to get done and government and businesses aren’t always going to do it. Sometimes it takes people just giving free time to make [things] happen. I didn’t do much volunteering until I moved [to Ottawa]. I did a little bit when I was in Toronto, when I moved here I started volunteering at a peace and environment resource centre in the glebe [http://www.perc.ca/] and that’s where it started. That would have been 1992. So it’s been 18 years of volunteering.”

 Q. What are the objectives of re-Cycles?

A. “Our original mandate was to take in donations of unwanted bicycles and turn them around and get them back out to people if we could. [If the bicycles] needed to be scrapped we would strip parts and at least get the carcass off to metal recyclers. A little while after that we got into people bringing their own bikes [into the shop]. Originally you could volunteer but you had to work on our bikes. Then we [introduced] a once a week community day where people would bring in their own bikes. Community day sort of took over and its [now] equal footing with working on your own bike or working on one of our bikes.”

 Q. What do you enjoy most about being involved in the community?

A. “I think it’s just helping people out, [that’s] the coolest part. With re-Cycles there’s the combination of helping people with their bikes [and] there’s also taking in the old bikes and breathing new life into them. There’s a part of me that doesn’t like to see stuff go to waste. You’re just part of the loop. Keeping the bikes out of the landfill, it’s just a great feeling. Both fixing it up, keeping it out of the garbage and then getting [the bicycle] back under somebody who really needs it. The same if somebody just needs to repair their own bike. A lot of people have older bikes and can’t afford $100 or $200 repairs at the bike store, we fill that gap. It’s very gratifying to get people back out on their bikes.”

 Q. What initially got you started at re-Cycles?

A. “I had heard about it for quite a while and I was a pretty committed cyclist. I still had a car at the time but I didn’t use it if I didn’t have to. As a musician I was using it to move my equipment around, but otherwise everywhere by bike. When I joined here I knew how to change tubes and tires and I sort of knew how to adjust my breaks, wasn’t quite sure about the shifting business. I thought if I am going to do more cycling like this I need to learn [more]. I kept hearing about re-Cycles that would close and re-open again and then finally I went to one of the public sessions and that’s when I started.”

 Q.   What is the most interesting bicycle creation you have ever encountered while working at re-Cycles?

A. “I have to be completely self-serving and say the coolest thing I’ve ever come across so far is my own cargo trike. [Check it out at: http://drumbent.com/trike.html] I set out to be as independent from using a motor vehicle as possible and my cargo trike is now going into its seventh year of use. I’ve ridden that thing all over the city and moved my drums and bicycles for re-Cycles with it. I’m so used to it now I keep forgetting how unique it is, except when people go, ‘Whoa, what is that? Did you build that?’ People have never seen anything like this before. I do have to remind myself [to] pat myself on the back. It’s a pretty unique thing.”

 Q. If you we’re to give advice to a tourist visiting Ottawa what would you suggest they do?

A. “I would tell them to go for a walk, hike or bike ride in Gatineau Park. Even though it’s not Ottawa it is part of the region and it is so opposite from being in the city. It’s one of the nicest things about Ottawa, how easy it is to get out of it and just sit quietly, listen to the birds, watch the chipmunks. I would encourage them to go across the river and see how quickly they can get out of Ottawa and enjoy it.

 Q. What advice would you give to people aspiring to get involved with the community?

 A. “Any kind of community work is rewarding. You get more back from it than you put in. The smiles from volunteers or people you’re helping [is] just a good feeling. Knowing we spend a weekend packing stuff up to go to Africa, it’s an amazing feeling. I think that’s the big thing, anyone you’re going to talk to is [volunteering] not because they are asking to get something out of it but they are [getting something out of it]. That’s the nice thing, you do the stuff and it comes back to you. Everything you put out comes back to you.”

Catherine Chapman is an inspiring woman I met in one of my communication classes. A few weeks ago she contacted me in regards to a benefit she is organizing for Hopewell (a support group for people with eating disorders, http://www.hopewell.ca/homepage). The amount of time and effort she has put forth to organize this benefit deserves some serious recognition!

 The benefit is taking place at 8pm on February 1, 2010 at the Urban Well on Laurier Ave. with a cost of $5 which will be going directly to the Hopewell organization.

Here is a snippet of the conversation we had over a hot beverage at Second Cup.

Q. What inspired you to organize this benefit for Hopewell?

A. “Well to be honest I used to struggle with an eating disorder and one night I decided that I didn’t want to have these habits anymore, I wanted to be better and concentrate on living a healthy life. When I made the decision to do that I realized that I needed something that was really big and exaggerated to get over this [to] show my accomplishment. It’s a pretty big accomplishment to beat an eating disorder. At first I was like, ‘I need to have a really big party with all my friends.’  Then it turned into, ‘Well how many other people probably struggle with an eating problem and don’t tell a single person?’ just like me… so maybe I should tell everyone that I had this problem and then they’ll realize that it is ok.”

Q. What are the objectives of the Hopewell organization?

A. “I think what Hopewell tries to do is get rid of the stigma of an eating disorder. Because with specifically anorexia and bulimia people are frowned upon, so it seems. In the media or in our daily lives no one wants to know about not eating. Guilt and Shame are feelings that go with that, so I think what Hopewell tries to do is offer a safe place where there is no guilt or you don’t have to be shamed for feeling this way because there are always other people that feel the same way as you do. They just try to offer support and try to teach you how to cope with it. They offer open and closed support groups and they have different guest speakers come in. It’s a pretty cool place.”

Q. Has organizing this event led you to further your participation in the community?

A. “Organizing an event is really hard (it hasn’t happened yet so hopefully it will be a huge success) but I would say that I’m pretty good at it and I also have this protest side in me. So putting up posters and standing for something is really fulfilling because I have always wanted something to stand for. I’m pretty sure my yearbook quote was ‘to make a difference’. Being able to help people especially [people] that I can relate to really [feels] good, I am bound to continue helping people. I don’t know what that will be but no further plans yet.”

Q. If you could choose any sort of lawn ornaments to be placed on your lawn on your birthday, what would they be?

A. “I really like muffins, 22 muffins would be sweet.”