Bicycle Disaster Preparedness Challenge
BICYCLE
 
BICYCLE

THE PURPOSE

  • Show the strength of cooperation
  • Gain new bicycle skills
  • Meet your neighbors
  • Learn critical thinking
  • Empower eachother

First and foremost this is a team building challenge using bicycles. The bicycle is a symbol of personal strength and during the aftermath of a disaster the human spirit is tested most of all. It will be that moment when we will need to pick eachother up, care for eachother, and deliver much needed relief.

We have built much of our urban life on complex systems. If one of the many dominos fall it can cause people to suffer. This challenge is to bring people together, learn how to work as a team, and use the bicycle as the tool that keeps working when everything else becomes unreliable.

 

AROUND THE WORLD

Groups from around the world have been challenging cyclists to carry aid and help after disasters. These trials have proven successful at showing the usefulness of bicycles and have helped the participants learn the skills they may need if a real disaster were to happen.

On the west coast of America groups like the “Disaster Relief Trials” have been taking part in endurance races using cargo bikes carrying relief supplies. The Colorado group “Denver Food Rescue” have been delivering food on bikes since 2012 using volunteer cyclists. After the large earthquake in Mexico city in 2017 a group of high school students organized relief missions on bicycles to bring aid to evacuation centers and victims of the disaster.

Disaster Relief Trials - USA
TEAMWORK

TEAMWORK

To encourage team building the challenge starts with participants selecting a team of 5 members. These could be members in your company, neighbors, classmates, or your friends or family. One rule about the teams is that you must have one person who is handicapped by age or physical ability.

These teams of 5 must get through each of the challenges together and learn the importance of working for the greater good and not just for yourself.

PLACE MARK

THE ROUTE

The route is a secret to the participants until one hour before the start. At the starting location there will be a registration where the teams get their checkpoint card, balloons, and a brief safety introduction.

Each checkpoint along the route will have a new item to collect and take with them to the goal and they will have a challenge that they need to overcome.

Sometimes the challenge is physical and sometimes the challenge is mental. The teams must work together to solve the challenge and navigate to the next checkpoint. They are not told how to get to the checkpoints and are not allowed to use electronic maps.

It’s not about speed but they are required to go to the checkpoints in order. If they skip one they will have to go back and pass the checkpoint they missed.

ROUTE
 
 
 

BECOMING A PARTNER

There are a few ways you can help make this challenge a huge success.

 
Partner 1
 

Sponsors

We need financial assistance to be able to cover the cost of collateral and other business expenses. With your support, you will have a visible presence at the event with your name or logo promi- nently seen throughout the challenge. Depending on the total amount you may be able to even have a booth at the final stage.

 
Partner 2
 

In-kind Donations

If you have access to material or locations that would help and can allow us to use it for free or at a reduced rate, we would kindly make sure everyone involved knows about your support.

 
Partner 3
 

Volunteering

Becoming a volunteer on the day makes everything run smoothly and gives the teams reassurance that the community is there to help. It’s a fun day out and you get to do some good for society.

CHECKPOINT_1
 
CHECKPOINT_1
 

DAMAGE CHECKPOINT

Teams will be given camping gear that they will need to take with them. Some of the items will be loose (without pages) and may be challenging to figure out how to carry the items.

There will be odd shaped items and items that should not get wet. Once the teams have secured their cargo, they will have to make their way across a broken landscape.

Rubble, wires, debris and other obstacles will be in their path. Once teams have crossed the path they must make their way through the city to the next checkpoint.

CHECKPOINT_2
 
CHECKPOINT_2
 

WATER CHECKPOINT

Water is necessary for living but it can also be deadly. Here teams will collect 15L of water that they must carry with them to the goal.

They can choose to have one member carry all the water or try to split it up between them. There will be some everyday items they could use to carry the water but they must keep it secure on their bike as the next challenge will be for the teams to make their way across a water hazard. This could be a stream or river.

The biggest challenge would be to keep somethings dry while staying safe. Once they all pass the water test they are on their way to the next checkpoint.

CHECKPOINT_3
 
CHECKPOINT_3
 

FOOD CHECKPOINT

Food is very important for people after a disaster. Hungry people are angry people and that could be another disaster. Getting food to the people that need it is one of the more import- ant tasks that our cyclists may be recruited to do.

However food distribution centers will be obstacles that may be difficult and getting food to those who really need it may be hard.

Therefore once the team collects bags of food they must get over large obstacles up to a meter high. It may be difficult to get some bikes over the barrier but that is the challenge and where teamwork really pays off.

CHECKPOINT_4
 
CHECKPOINT_4
 

HYGIENE CHECKPOINT

The secret killer after a disaster are the pathogens that linger beyond the initial damage. If sanitation systems are compromised there is a need to deal with waste appropriately.

Children and the elderly are at major risk of contracting life threatening bacteria. That’s why it’s important to know what to do with all the question- able waste. This checkpoint is unlike the others.

Here teams will have to correctly answer questions about waste manage- ment during the days that follow a disaster. Once they complete the task they will be given toiletries such as toilet paper, wet wipes, diapers and feminine hygiene products. They must bring this and all the other items they collected from the previous check- points to the next checkpoint.

CHECKPOINT_5
 
CHECKPOINT_5
 

ENERGY CHECKPOINT

Highlighting the need for electrical power, this checkpoint will illuminate how difficult it is to produce all the power needed to live in our modern world. After the large earthquake in 2011 it was important for everyone to use less electricity. The less we use on unimportant things the more energy there is for those that need it.

Gasoline should be used to power hospital generators and emergency vehicles and not on someones car. Electricity should go to power evacua- tion centers and not on a large screen TV.

Here teams will have to charge a portable battery from 0% to 100% enough to get them through the night. Or help someone charge their mobile phone to see if they can contact their loved once to let them know they are OK.