500 Bikes for Ukrainian

[Music] hello and greetings from ushers island here in dublin and paul mcquaid is my name and uh seven weeks ago my life changed for the better i got a text message from a friend of mine um with this screen grab um from the ukrainian woman in the holiday inn uh asking for two bicycles um she had just gotten her two kids into school but it was a 45-50 minute walk away from school and so she just asked did anybody know anybody who could give them two bicycles a couple of days later i went out to them with um initially i texted them and told them that i’d give them three bikes and a couple of days later i brought the bikes out to the holiday inn and with no real expectation other than i was going to give these people three bikes and hopefully they were going to enjoy them and everything my name is kelly i’m paul’s partner and uh we started collecting donated bikes from people in ireland at the end of march and lots of people started to bring in their bikes and paul started to service them so that we could give them out for free to people who are arriving in ireland from ukraine and it started off and it just grew and grew and grew and we’ve now put out about 500 bikes to people from all over the country that are here from from ukraine i saw the expression on their faces and all three of them it was pretty profound and i i i instantly thought that i have to do something um serious in this situation helping ukrainians who are displaced and coming to live here in ireland so it’s been a really really positive thing for us to to be able to do we’ve met so many incredible ukrainian people who have been here and everybody has been very kind and patient because it’s taking a little bit of time for us to get bikes to people because we’ve got a few people waiting for bikes now and we need to get more bikes in and then get them back out again [Music] you know it’s amazing initiative actually and believe me i am very happy to see smiles on the children’s faces because they are happy to have a bike to run to to go around dublin whatever and uh to do sport actually and thank you so much for for all those people who donated this bicycle in the order of this garage and such possibility [Music] i come from a big cycling background and a bicycle has always been a part of my life um i cycle seven days a week um my cycle literally four five six times every day short distances in around town and i’ve always thought that the bicycle should be an integral part of somebody’s life not just an add-on not just a toy not just something that you um go for a cycle on a sunday but an an absolute integral part of your life and just like it is in holland just like it is in in copenhagen [Music] the third of june is world bike day with this initiative you’re bringing basically everything together um and when you see the smiles on people’s faces when they receive a bike which for them not just means getting a bike but it means that they get here the chance to move around better in ireland with all the hospitality that they’ve received [Music] people here in ireland who have bikes in their garages down the end of the gardens hanging up in their living rooms unused and we’re going to ask them to donate those bikes i will service them and we will give them to ukrainians for free that was the idea i initially thought we were going to give out 250 bikes and leave it at that since that evening we have received two and a half thousand emails today we gave out our 500th bike and we have pledges of bicycles from people all over the country [Music] thank you thank you very much very very people is very kind this is country fantastic thank you thank you i am happy thank you [Music] but yes we’re just really uh thankful for everything that everyone has done we’ve had some great volunteers working with us um jerry cahill paul has been the chief mechanic and and big boss in the project and he’s uh he’s working his butt off um yeah so that’s i think what i what i’m happy to say almost 100 of our ukrainians who arrived in ireland are very happy here feel safety and very grateful to to to all of you and even here so we have some ukrainians here and what they said in the beginning they are very grateful to all of you so you are doing a lot for us and believe me we will never forget about that [Music] i believe even more so now not that i needed to be convinced but i believe even more so now that every ukrainian um should have a bicycle uh in their lives here in ireland it’s as simple as that it’s this isn’t reinventing the wheel i’m not trying to take on you know any of the big corporations here it’s a very simple um idea that we get bicycles that are unused we service them and we get ukrainians cycling and not just cycling cycling every day [Music] you