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Here are a few more ways you can help ...
Give Someone A Bike
Give Someone Attention
Give Someone A Bike
If you find yourself with some extra cash but would rather give it to those who need it more than we do, World Bicycle Relief is a wonderful non-profit providing locally-assembled bicycles to those who could really use them to get around (to school, a health clinic, or a job) in Africa, South America, and southeast Asia.
At World Bicycle Relief, they aim to educate national and global policymakers about the cross-cutting power of mobility in improving livelihoods and reducing poverty. A bicycle is a valuable tool that helps people achieve more in all areas of their lives.
The information and feedback from the communities they serve, collected by their specialists and implementing partners in the field, help them design innovative programs that solve problems faced by people in rural areas due to a lack of mobility.
Click here to learn more about how bicycles can improve education, healthcare, and development, or to donate to World Bicycle Relief (about every $147 buys a bicycle for someone who needs one, but you can donate any amount).
From Claire Geiger, Director of Partnerships in an email dated 12/10/2019 ..
Hi Jea, I hope this finds you well. You come to my mind often and I’m thinking of you a lot during this time around the holidays. I wanted to reach out to thank you for all your support for World Bicycle Relief in Jay’s memory. I hope you know that his legacy lives on through the many lives changed through the power of bicycles. (Through a fundraising effort, in Jay's memory, we donated 30 bicycles.)
Give Someone A Couch
Give Someone Attention
Give Someone A Bike
WarmShowers and Couchsurfing are free, worldwide "hospitality clubs"—basically big groups of really generous, (extra)ordinary people who give travelers access to a spare bed, couch, spot in the backyard, meal, or warm shower for a night or two (or more, if they want). It's part of the informal gift economy, where humans give to other humans without expecting anything in return. Hosting through WarmShowers or Couchsurfing (which you can do as often or as infrequently as you'd like) is a great way to put some good karma out into the universe (karma that may find its way back to us, or you, down the road), and also to meet some truly interesting people with some great stories. (Warmshowers is open just to bicycle travelers, while Couchsurfing includes backpackers, road-trippers, weekenders, cyclists, and more).
If you're not set up on either website but do see some scraggly travelers with overstuffed panniers wandering around your town, totally feel free to help 'em however you feel comfortable. Bike tourers are usually trusting (and trustworthy) folks. It's one of the greatest highlights of moving slowly enough to meet people, and folks on bikes really try to pay it forward (and pay it back) however they can.
Give Someone Attention
Give Someone Attention
Donate To One Of Jay's Favorite Causes
If you find yourself behind the wheel of a car, please be really, really careful. Cyclists are really vulnerable on the road—not so much from lions and and tigers and bears, but mainly from perfectly decent folks who get a little too comfortable driving a little too fast and taking their eyes off the road for a little too long. Each year, 1,200,000 people die in vehicular crashes (either inside an automobile, on a bike, or on foot), which is an astounding 3,300 deaths every single day (twenty to fifty million people each year are just a little luckier, surviving crashes disabled or injured). Probably three or four people have died from a crash since you began reading this page a few minutes ago. In America alone, 100 people were killed by vehicles, and their drivers, just yesterday, and another 100 will be killed by the end of the day today. Car crashes are one of the leading causes of death for most people, especially those traveling on bike and people under thirty.
In short: moving vehicles are dangerous so please never, ever text and drive, never, ever, drink and drive, always give cyclists and pedestrians a wide berth when passing, and if it's too difficult to pass safely, just slow down and wait. Thanks!
Donate To One Of Jay's Favorite Causes
Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC)
Donate To One Of Jay's Favorite Causes
The Homeless Children's Playtime Project in Washington, DC cultivates resilience in children experiencing family homelessness by providing and expanding access to transformative play experiences.
Jay volunteered his time at Playtime Project as a 'Play Ranger' as well as part-time photographer and carpenter.
In 2013, Jay ran a 5K, barefoot, collecting $650 in donations for the Playtime Project.
Please visit their website at playtimeproject.org to contribute.
Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC)
Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC)
Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC)
For a friend of ours ... from the family's web site,
'To honor our daughter, it has become my passion to educate and raise awareness of Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC) -a rarely known category of death- ultimately preventing this tragedy from happening to future families. Shockingly, SUDC is scarcely known in the medical community.
Team Vienna 4 SUDC Awareness Inc. (incorporated 1/19/19, 501c3) is our family's nonprofit to raise awareness for SUDC world-wide and to support SUDC research, while honoring our sweet Vienna. Team Vienna was incorporated on what should have been Vienna's 4th birthday.'
Please visit their website at teamviennasudc.org to contribute.
Here's Another Of Our Favorites
Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC)
Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC)
Their mission is to clean the ocean and coastlines while working to stop the inflow of plastic by changing consumption habits.
Please visit their website at 4ocean.com to contribute.
Start Your Own Annual Birthday Charity
Start Your Own Annual Birthday Charity
Start Your Own Annual Birthday Charity
When another birthday comes around, you might find yourself with some excess generosity from family and friends. Maybe they want to buy you some new clothes, that new tech accessory, or dinner at a fancy restaurant. You might feel lucky to have such caring family and friends, but perhaps you don’t need gifts, especially when that money could be spent in a much more meaningful way. Donating a birthday to charity brings valuable dollars to important work, and it will make your birthday feel even more special. This year, or every year thereafter, in lieu of gifts, empower your loved ones to spark change by making a donation to your favorite nonprofit organization.
'I could die doing what I love, but I could also die never having really lived. To me, that would have been a far greater tragedy.' - Jay Austin
Jay truly lived .. up until the very moment he was intentionally brutally murdered in a terrorist attack while cycling the globe.
Jay lost his life simply because he was an American.
May 1st, 1989 - July 29th, 2018