European rider and Pinkbike associate Richard Gasperotti was amazed by the idea of Share the Ride and jumped at the chance to help get underprivileged children in his home country of the Czech Republic on new bikes. Together with popular television presenter from the major Czech station, TV Prima Tomas Hauptvogel and supported by Pinkbike.com he arranged a delivery of 18 brand new Specialized Hotrock bikes and helmets to the kids living in Czech orphanages.
In the Czech republic there are almost 150 residential institutions devoted to the care of orphans – children whose biological parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them. Gaspi and Tomas wrote a letter to all of the orphanages to find out, where the bikes would be most welcomed. After a long survey Gaspi and Tomas selected three of orphanages in three different towns Unhost, Vysoka Pec and Pardubice and visited them one by one followed by the media team to cover the bikes being handed over.
You should have seen the happy faces of the gifted children! They didn’t hesitate for a second, they sat on the bikes and started to ride immediately outside at the playground and even inside in the dining room. Hopefully some of them will become real mountain biking keeners and maybe professional riders in the future. And even if not, the bikes will definitively bring more joy and happiness to their lives.
Gaspi, Tomas and the whole crew including Lukas (production), Martin (cameraman) and Adam (photographer) would like to thank everyone involved: Pinkbike.com and Specialized Europe for making their days better.
Entries into the Share the Ride giveaways are now closed but you can still DONATE via our Indiegogo page.
pinkbike.com/sharetheride
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*Winners of our Share the Ride giveaways will be announced in the coming weeks.
Orphanage number one. Do you think the kids are happy?
It breaks my heart to see these kids with no parents.
It's brilliant that just by giving a few dollars each we can give these kids a little something to smile about. Bravo Pinkbike
Way to make a man cry PB ;-)
This is great though really. Seriously touching.
Seeing this just makes you realise that win or lose it was worth every penny.
Giving kids a nice bike for $50 today will bring the company $1,000's later when the kids are adults and cycling or mountain biking.
Not just Specialized, but all large cycling companies should invest into their own future by addicting the kids early to riding a bike.
Thanks for the article, thanks for doing this gaspi and Pinkbike, specialized, etc. good on all of you
That's my bro's orphanage in Limpopo, South Africa
www.noahsarkchildrenshome.org.za
He's a rider and a shaper in need for his (actually) 37 kids.
That's my bro's orphanage in Limpopo, South Africa
www.noahsarkchildrenshome.org.za
He's a rider and a shaper in need for his (actually) 37 kids.
Nice to see these kids smile! As said before every child should have a bike