Five Cambrian students and two Sudbury
Sunrisers Rotary Club members will spend 21 days donating bicycles to
children in Cambodia. Photo courtesy of Darlene Palmer
Five students with Cambrian's fitness and leisure pro-g ram
will team up with the Sudbury Sunrisers Rotary Club to bring bicycles to
needy children in Cambodia.
The trip is part of Rotary Wheels for Learning, a program that was
started four years ago by Lisa McCoy, a member of the Rotary Club of
Gravenhurst.
McCoy said Cambodian children often have to walk long distances to go
to school and don't have access to any mode of transportation.
"Most people (in Cambodia) don't make the salary in one year what it costs for a bicycle for a child," she said.
Last year, her rotary club raised $40,000 and managed to donate 1,097
bicycles to Cambodian children. For 2012, the goal is to raise $18,000
to buy about 500 bicycles. Rotary has said it would match any donations
and plans to donate up to 516 bikes.
Darlene Palmer, a member of the Sudbury Sunrisers and Cambrian's
director of business development, loved the idea so much she convinced
the school to recruit five students to help distribute the bic ycles in
remote villages during a 21-day trip to Cambodia.
"It was so easy to get five volunteers," Palmer said.
She approached students with Cambrian's fitness and leisure program and had to sift through essays to pick the lucky candidates.
Carl Fagnant, a third-year student with the program at Cambrian, said
a three-month trip to Thailand a few years ago inspired him to jump
aboard the project.
"The main mode of transportation over there is the bicycle, so having
the opportunity to go and distribute hundreds of bicycles to families
in need is a wonderful opportunity," Fagnant said in an email.
Fagnant said he expects the project to be the "opportunity of a lifetime."
Sudbury Sunrisers member Debra Betty will also travel to Cambodia for the project.
She said she thinks it will be a memorable experience and wishes she had known about similar opportunities when she was younger.
"The fact that these young people want to get involved in this type
of mission is incredible," Betty said. "They truly are life changing
experiences."
McCoy said the bicycles also provide local jobs because parts that
are shipped over from Japan and South Korea are then assembled in
Cambodia.
To donate to the project, visit rotarywheelsforlearning. blogs pot.ca/oremail rotarywheelsforlearning@gmail.com. jonathan.
migneault@sunmedia.ca
Twitter: @jmigneault
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