Nevis Cycling Club Donations – Please Read

Hello Ride-Strong readers,

My name is Kathryn Bertine, and I’m a pro cyclist living and training in Tucson…only I happen to be in the Caribbean at the moment. How I got here is a bit of a long story, but here’s the condensed version: Two years ago, ESPN hired me to write about my two-year attempt to make it to the Beijing Olympics. Alas, I didn’t make it. But here’s the cool part; I didn’t exactly fail. The experiences along the way made for an incredible journey, with unbelievable races, people, and nations all playing huge parts in my quest.

Halfway through my Olympic attempt, I was given dual citizenship with the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis in order to help the country build a prominent future in cycling. While I’m still racing toward my own dreams of 2012, I’m finally in a position to start giving back to the country that helped me so much in my quest. I’m currently on the island of Nevis. What an incredible experience cycling here. for starters, the island has one paved road all the way around measuring just over 20 miles. The hills are killer. The winds are killerer. I can’t begin to tell you how fascinating it is to watch out for monkeys, donkeys, goats, and crabs…all of which love to dart into the road without notice. Ok, crabs don’t dart. They scuttle. They’re not so startling. Except for the fact that, dude, there’s a crab in the road. We don’t see that much in Tucson. Cooler still are the people, all 10,000 of them on Nevis. There are less than twenty in the cycling club, but we’re changing that every day.  One goal is to build an inter-Caribbean women’s UCI team, so the islands can get better world wide recognition. I was fortunate enough to race in the World Champs in Varese, Italy this year. Someday, there will be more of us, which is why the other goal of my volunteering down here is much more grassroots. The Nevis Cycling Club and I are trying to get as many kids into cycling as possible.

This is a bit tougher than in America, as the economy here is even worse than our US one. Poverty is abundant, and it is no fun seeing kids’ enthusiasm toward sport suffer because of lack of equipment and support. Luckily, the Nevis Cycle Club has their own version of Obama, and his name is Winston Crooke. Winston is doing all he can to get–and keep–kids on bikes. Our biggest obstacles in Nevis are lack of support from parents and government youth programs, proper clothing/equipment, suitable finances, and the worst enemy of all: apathy. Unfortunately, gangs are becoming more prevalent in youth culture in the Caribbean, and too many signs point to American television and movies and their glorification of violence/gangs. Ugh. We can do better than this! So let’s.

I’d be honored if you would look into your cycling closets and donate your old gear to the Nevis Cycle Club! Here are the details of our needs, wants and shipping. If you send anything down to Nevis, keep your postal receipts and I can give you a tax receipt for it.  

Main needs (all sizes/both genders appreciated!):

 Bikes   (Got an old one lying around? One your kids have outgrown?)

All Components  (There’s no Fairwheel or TriSports here…yet…so when something breaks, it stays broken.)

Bike shorts (Gained or lost weight? Awesome! Gimme your fat pants)

Jerseys (Fashion is not an issue, dig deep in your florescent polyester filled closets.)

Tires   (The funny colored one you won in a raffle).

Shoes   (Again, old stuff welcome…anything’s better than sneakers)

Helmets   (The one in your closet that has three vents and looks like a salad bowl)

Gloves   (Even old weightlifting gloves are better than nothing)

Sunglasses   (Calling all Faux-kleys)

Water bottles   (Preferably new on this one. Old cages, too!)

All triathlon equipment helps too!

Also, if you own a sports retail business or you’re on a cycling team… Perhaps you have “mess-up” orders, double-shipments, or misspelled silkscreen rejects? I’ll take ‘em! Whatever you’ve got. 

You can send donations to:

Winston Crooke
Nevis Cycle Club
Oualie Beach Resort
St. James
Nevis, West Indies

Thank you so much, everyone. As Winston, the cycling club president of Nevis likes to say, “From small acorns do big oak trees grow.”  Ya mon.  We also sell the official St. Kitts and Nevis national kit right here…to get to the order page, just proceed as though you are signing up for a race.

http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1642849

Email me with any questions you may have Kathryn Bertine:   ESPNOlympian@aol.com

For a link to Kathryn’s ESPN quest, just click on the numbers. And keep a lookout for her quest as a book! It debuts in May 2009 from ESPN Books.

PARTS: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |

http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/storypage=olympianpart14

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