BEN BLITZ

June / July 2018

Youth Day

BEN and PPA were in Grabouw in celebration of Youth Day.  Youth Day in South Africa commemorates the Soweto Uprising in the country. The day is celebrated on June 16 every year. The day is celebrated in order to recognize the role of youth in the liberation of South Africa from the Apartheid regime. Youth Day was organised by Theewaterskloof Stakeholders at The Gerald Wright Memorial Hall, supported by Grabouw B E A U T I F U L Campaign and Trails End Hotel.

Much fun and excitement was had by many children of Grabouw enjoying the bicycle track we created for them on the day. 

BEN had a busy Youth Day. Not only were we in Grabouw but we were in De Doorns supporting the De Doorns Community Cycle Race, by donating 2 Bike4all’s as prizes.

#bike4all

Distribution in Railton, Swellendam

On Monday 25 June 2018, along with our friends at Pedal Power Association we delivered 10 bicycles to VRT Pitt Primary in Railton, Swellendam.  Tim Mosdell (General Manager of BEN) was taking part in the Cape Country Unplugged Cycle Tour and we decided to partner with the event and bring some cycling joy to the kids of Railton.  Rohan Germishuys kindly assisted in connecting all of us and the Railton Trust will look after the bicycles and put them to good use in the community.  At the end of July we will be back in Swellendam, handing over 10 more bicycles.  This time in partnership with the Chas Everitt Around the Pot - Overberg 100Miler Cycle Race.  Events giving something back to the community.

Distribution to Eden Mountain Bike Club (Salt River)

Open Streets #Bike2Work

Open Streets are in the process of implementing #Bike2Work bike buses into Cape Town.  This month’s focus was from Claremont to Town.  Our very own Founder of BEN, Louis de Waal was invited as a special guest.  We all met up at Seattle Coffee Shop at the Cape Town Civic Center for an inspiring chat with Louis de Waal and Frank van der Velde (Former Mayor of Cape Town).  Well done to Open Streets on this great initiative.  The next #Bike2Work bike bus will take place from Gugulethu to Cape Town on Friday 27 July at 6:15am. It will depart from Gugulethu Police station and end at the Now Now Café, 95 Longmarket Street.  For more information email Sindile Mavundla at sindile@openstreets.co.za.

Welcome to BEN Nick van den Broek - Intern from Netherlands 

Nick has joined BEN as an intern for the next 3 months.  Nick is from the Netherlands.

He is in the process of doing design research on various levels in multiple fields to identify values and needs in Cape Town. Combined with trend research he explores possibilities for the future and one of those trends is liveability in cities and humanistic urban spaces. A vision where cities are for people where the last decades were centred round cars.  There is a transformation noticeable and bike-culture is embraced more and more in cities like New York and London, following the trends in Amsterdam and Copenhagen. So with the eye on the future, we have to act now to have the benefits later.  The research that Nick is doing will serve as a base to create future-proof lifestyle concepts to reach the visionary goal of Cape Town bicycle capital of Africa in 2030?  Good luck Nick.

Community Service at BEN

Ben Day and Matt Mosdell from Rondebosch Boys' High School joined us on Wednesday, 11^th July 2018 doing valuable community service assembling #bike4all bikes at BEN under the expert eye of Sulaiman Jones (Workshop Manager).

Vega - Trend Setting Workshop 

On 12^th July 2018 we were honored to be part of an incredible workshop at Vega CT with Els Dragt, leading Dutch trend author & expert.

Els is from the Fontys Academy for Creative Industries in the Netherlands, & is doing a roadshow of all 4 campuses of Vega. The students of Vega were asked to present Trend setting to make Cape Town the leading bicycle city by 2030. 

Talented 3rd year students pitched their proposals to us and we got to share and provide valuable feedback. 

This workshop was inspired by our in-turn, Nick van den Broek, who is currently completing his graduation thesis at Fontys Academy for Creative Industries in the Netherlands . Nick is with us until end of October.

Thank you for making BEN part of this exciting workshop.

Mandela Day

We activated the cycling community, in partnership with Pedal Power Association, Bike4All, Open Streets Cape Town, Qhubeka Charity, Grabouw BEAUTIFUL Campaign, Blendervendor,  LifeBrands and Trail's End as we pledged our 67 minutes to the Rooidakke Community Park in Grabouw, cleaning up the park. 

Robert Vogel, CEO of Pedal Power Association summed up the day to perfection “I had no idea so many children would turn up to help us and to have the assistance of the municipality there as well, really highlighted what can be achieved if everyone knuckles down and works together.  We have a lot of plans for the Grabouw area and I am pleased to see that our first steps are starting to bear fruit.  As the community of Grabouw takes ownership of its environment and moves forward with a sense of commitment and responsibility, it makes our work so much easier.  I think bicycles are just a small part of the transformation process that is envisaged in Grabouw. The real potential for turning Grabouw into the vision that Grabouw B E A U T I F U L aspires to, lies with the people that live there.  A beautiful Grabouw is a more liveable Grabouw and instils a sense of pride in the residents.  We are proud to be part of that transformation.”

My School Card

A reminder BEN has officially been added as a beneficiary on the “My School Card” programme. We would appreciate if you would consider updating your details online to change your beneficiary https://www.myschool.co.za/supporter/update/ OR sign up for a card and add us as a beneficiary https://www.myschool.co.za/supporter/apply/

“Life is like riding a bicycle. In order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.” — Albert Einstein, genius