"Scrap Metal to Ghana Pedal" in the Ithaca Journal!

Kate Hill, from the Ithaca Journal, came by Saturday during our bike collection day to interview Liz and I about our project and take pictures of bikes! Check out the front page of the Ithaca Journal online and look at the picture of my basement full of over 250 bikes!
http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20090309/NEWS01/903090310&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

Purchase this Photo

Anne-Lise Cossart moves donated bikes into the basement of her apartment Saturday at 708 E. Seneca Street. Cossart and schoolmate Liz Bageant received a grant from the Cornell Community Partnership Board to send 500 recycled bicycles to Ghana. Once in Ghana, the Village Bicycle Project will reassemble and distribute them. Cossart and Bageant have received around 125 bikes and are still in need of mountain bikes and road bikes in reasonable condition. Anyone interested in donating can do so any time between now and April 4 at Recycle Ithaca Bicycles, 530 W. Buffalo St., or at 708 E. Seneca St. (ERICA THUM / Staff Photo)

To donate, volunteer

* What: Bicycles and parts; no trailers or children's tricycles.

* Where: Recycle Ithaca's Bicycles, 530 West Buffalo St., Ithaca or 708 East Seneca St. (between Eddy and Stewart), Ithaca

* When: By April 4.

* Contact: Liz Bageant, 216-5341 or Anne-Lise Cossart, (609) 571-7235

* On the Net:

www.ghanabikes.org/

"ITHACA — A tangled pile of bikes in varying degrees of disrepair sits outside Recycle Ithaca Bicycles on a mild Saturday. Some without tires or missing a brake line, these bikes will get refurbished and make the life of a rural African villager just a little bit easier.
Cornell students Anne-Lise Cossart and Liz Bageant, hope to collect 500 bikes by April 4 to send to Ghana through the Village Bicycle Project, an organization that provides reasonably priced bikes, maintenance lessons and tools to villagers in Africa.
"Taking something that most people would see as garbage or scrap metal and sending it to someone who is going to cherish it is amazing," said Cossart, a senior biology major..."

And of course, I'm getting excited about my upcoming bike trip across America for affordable housing! A quick update on my fund raising : I'm now up to $1705 (42.55%)! My goal is to raise $2000 by April 3rd and the entire $4000 by my departure day on June 3rd. Want to sponsor my ride? Click here to donate!