Synergy Automotive has smashed its target to collect 50 unwanted bikes to enable children and their families to borrow bicycles for free.
The preferred vehicle leasing, contract hire and rental provider to Welcome to Yorkshire, Synergy has collected over 70 bicycles after asking the local community to donate old, unused and outgrown bikes as part of the county-wide Bike Libraries programme to promote healthy living and social inclusion.
Boosting Welcome to Yorkshire’s vision for every child in the county to have access to a bike, the programme collects, checks and repairs cycles before loaning them out.
Synergy’s call to action to gather adult and children’s bikes at its Harrogate offices achieved its goal just four weeks into the eight-week initiative thanks to contributions from businesses and local people across North Yorkshire.
Sir Gary Verity, Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said:
We’re grateful that Synergy Automotive have thrown their support behind our award-winning Yorkshire Bank Bike Libraries project which in three years has seen over 5,500 bikes donated.
Synergy have done an excellent job in collecting donated bikes which will go on make such a difference to the lives of children across Yorkshire. I’d like to thank them for their fantastic contribution. We look forward to working with them in the future.
Paul Parkinson, MD of Synergy, a champion of giving back to its local communities, said:
The response to the campaign has been tremendous and we have been overwhelmed by people’s generosity in bringing all types, styles and sizes of bikes to our offices and enabling us to overachieve our targets.
We are also delighted to be providing Welcome to Yorkshire with two support vans for the keenly awaited Tour de Yorkshire 2018, one of the most celebrated and successful races on the cycling calendar.
Launched in December 2014, the Bike Libraries programme operates 63 donation stations and 49 bike libraries across the region and has so far given children more than 53 thousands opportunities to ride a bike.
