Our March- June 2015 Tour is right around the corner and our Indiegogo campaign to raise $10,000 is in full swing!
- Read this post about the tour.
- Visit the Indiegogo page and make a donation
- Check out our Facebook event for the fundraiser and invite your friends.
- “Like” Sustainable Cycles on Facebook.
- Get in touch if you want to be involved!
Sustainable Cycles is a collective of “spokeswomen” who travel across the country by bicycle to lead workshops about eco-friendly menstrual products.The project was started in 2011 by Sarah Konner and Toni Craige, who biked down the West Coast meeting with groups of women to discuss the cultural taboos of menstruation and pass around a show-and-tell kit of alternatives to single-use pads and tampons. The project gained momentum and a year later, Rachel Horn led a second bicycle tour, talking about periods and the environmental impact of the products we use everywhere she went.
Now, SIX WOMEN from diverse backgrounds want to take the project to the next level! Rachel and Olive from Los Angeles, Ruby and Sarah from New York City, Rosie from Australia, and Kim from South Africa are going to bike from the West Coast to Boston. Our six riders will follow two separate routes (one southern and one midwestern) from California to converge in Richmond, VA. Then we will ride in one big group up the east coast to end at the Society of Menstrual Cycle Research’s National Conference in Boston, Massachusetts. We will present our project at the June 2015 event and network with others doing work in this field.
SO FAR, MENSTRUAL CUP AND REUSABLE CLOTH PAD COMPANIES HAVE DONATED OVER 1,000 SAMPLES FOR US TO PROMOTE AND DISTRIBUTE ON OUR TRIP! OUR SPONSORS INCLUDE DIVA CUP, LUNETTE, MY OWN CUP, RUBY CUP, AND PARTY IN MY PANTS.
During our three months on the road, we will host events in different cities along our routes and start person-to-person conversations with hundreds of women about menstrual health and alternative products. We will encourage them to switch to methods that are safer and more environmentally friendly, and spread the word to their friends and communities. Let’s break the cycle of shame and embarrassment around “cycling”!
We want your support!
We want to raise $10,000 to help cover the cost of food, bicycle maintenance, emergency repairs, and transportation to and from our start and end locations. While we are doing our best to be frugal and source used and donated gear, there are still many items we don’t yet have that will be necessities on the road, especially since we will be riding through a variety of climates and terrain. We will definitely need to replace things like tires, tubes, and brake pads as they wear out over the trip. We will also need to keep ourselves fed and watered. Remember, the money we raise will be distributed between six riders!
If you aren’t able to contribute financially at this time, please check out our list below of other donations we will gladly accept!
Why donate?
By donating to this campaign, you are supporting a cultural shift towards more environmental and health-conscious practices, as well as more open discourse surrounding women’s bodies and menstruation. We have done bike tours like this before, and we have been successful in spreading knowledge about alternative products and getting hundreds of women across the country to make the switch to reusables. We are already supported by many of the companies who manufacture these sustainable products, but we need YOUR SUPPORT to make our largest cross-country tour ever a reality!
There are many ways to contribute!
In addition to monetary contributions, we will gladly accept donations of the following (things in used condition or temporary loans are A-ok!):
-lightweight camping gear (tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, camping stoves, water purifiers, camel backs)
-Up-to-date bicycle maps of the following states: California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia
-bicycle gear (clipless shoes, lots of bike lights and batteries, warm lightweight layers, racks, panniers, safety flags and triangles, water bottles and bottle cages, toe covers, bar mitts for cold weather)
Help us make connections!
Besides the physical “stuff”, connections to potential hosts and communities who would be interested in workshops along our routes are invaluable! Know a women’s health center, bicycle coalition, social/environmental/student group, health food store, or other potentially interested party in any of the following cities or surrounding areas? Please reach out to us and let us know!
Ruby, Sarah, and Kim:
CA- San Francisco, Sacramento
NV- Carson City
UT- Salt Lake City
CO- Boulder, Denver
KS- Topeka
MS- Kansas City, St. Louis
IN- Bloomington
OH- Cincinnati
VA- Roanoke, Richmond
Rachel, Olive, and Rosie:
CA- San Diego
AZ- Phoenix
NM- Las Cruces
TX- Austin
LA- New Orleans
MS- Jackson
AL- Montgomery
GA- Atlanta
NC- Asheville
ALL:
DC- Washington
PA- Philadelphia
NYC and Boston- we have many connections here already, but we’d be happy to make more! :)
Please share our campaign with your friends and pass the word along about our project!
Sustainable Cycles 