Sustainability Spotlight: Bike Kitty
At Austin Creative Reuse, we're about more than just arts and crafts. We promote like-minded organizations to reduce overlap, increase awareness of city resources, and make it as easy as possible for our community to reduce, reuse, and recycle!
This month, we are highlighting the folks at Bike Kitty who are also doing their own reuse challenge for Bike Month in May, similar to our Reuse & [Re]Think Challenge. Bike Kitty is dedicated to connecting cyclists globally to reuse and repurpose cycling kits, while growing the sport and promoting inclusion. Continue reading below to learn more about their organization and get the details on their own reuse-focused activity with the founder of Bike Kitty, Laura Carbonneau!
What is the history of your organization? How did it get started?
Founder Laura Carbonneau started doing road riding for sport and after a few years collecting team items and charity organization “kit” (the term for cycling specific clothes), she realized that most cyclists like her had lots of extra items sitting in their closets. In 2018, she connected with Team Africa Rising, and began sending them gently used items in the sizes they need (smaller ones!). In early 2021 she decided to give her project a name and make it an on-going project and branch out to more organizations that work with new cyclists. Bike Kitty was born!
What is the mission of your organization? Connecting cyclists globally to reuse and repurpose cycling kits, while growing the sport and promoting inclusion.
What eco-friendly initiatives does your organization uphold? By preventing cycling kit from going in the landfill, this is central to our existence.
How can ACR and our community help with your bike kit project? We have received more donations of kit than we are able to “rehome” to new cyclists for various reasons. It is our dream to be able to find ways to repurpose some or most of these items! Also, if anyone in ACR would like to try out cycling-specific clothes that make riding a bike more comfortable, or know other groups we should work with, please reach out!
Where can we find out more about your organization?
Let's Ride Meow is our website. We are also on Instagram @ridemeow. For specific questions, please contact laura@letsridemeow.org.
What are the details on your reuse challenge for Austin Creative Reusers?
We have 4 locations that folks can go to pick up the items:
Trek Bicycle Lamar - 517 S Lamar Blvd, 10am-6pm Mon-Sat, 12-5pm Sun
Cycleast - 1619 East Cesar Chavez, 7am-7pm daily
Patagonia - 316 Congress Ave, 10am-6pm Mon-Fri, 11am-6pm Sat-Sun
Grassiron - 5555 N Lamar Blvd B-110, 7am-12pm and 4-7:30 pm Mon-Fri
Submissions can be emailed to laura@letsridemeow.org and will be due by May 31st, 11:59PM, which is the end of Bike Month! Please make sure to include a small description of how the item was made. The winner will receive a prize of a $50 gift card from Mellow Johnny’s bike shop! We even made a short video with ideas for the public to get inspired. We can’t wait to see what everyone makes!
