YOU MAKE OUR PROJECT REALITY «SMILES ON WHEELS»
We are continuously working on our leisure project for the disabled called “Smiles on wheels”.
The project started with a fundraising campaign in February 2015. To date, we already have 3 Duet bikes and 1 Fun2Go in Madrid. These adapted bicycles have a dynamic positioning system that allows you to sit comfortably while enjoying a new activity.
Thanks to our participation with adapted bikes in the Madrid Kings Parade – 2020, many more families now know about this adapted leisure possibility.
The Lukas Ayuda a la Discapacidad Foundation signed a collaboration agreement with the bicycle rental service Mobeo, so that our adapted bikes were available in the capital of Spain.
On March 7, 2020, the Lukas Foundation’s adapted bike rental service was inaugurated at the Mobeo bicycle rental store, located in the Plaza Río 2 Shopping Center. A few days later the Covid-19 pandemic began and the service was temporarily suspended.
From October 2020 to September 2021 our adapted bicycles have been enjoyed by young people with disabilities at the Icaro Club – Envera Colmenar Viejo.
And now we return with the bicycle service together with Mobeo to continue drawing smiles in the capital. From September 1, our bicycles can be found at the Mobeo store located in the Plaza Río 2 Shopping Center (Street level, right next to the slide) and can be easily reserved.
We have:
– Accident and civil liability insurance for users and theft insurance
– Helmets, padlocks for protection, maintenance and logistics
– Appointment system
– Advertising material for the service, communication, flags, banners, flyers, etc.
Video de la inauguración
Our Objectives
– Improve the quality of life of people with disabilities and their families.
– Offer an adapted and inclusive leisure resource for people with disabilities and their families.
– Offer respites and breaks to the families of people with disabilities by organizing outings and bike rides with volunteers from the Foundation.
– Create ties and integration between people with different disabilities and offer them volunteering in the field of leisure and adapted sports.
– Promote the integration of people with disabilities into society through adapted sport.
– Promote sustainable mobility, reducing the cost of using adapted motorized transport.
– Work in a network with various entities and people with disabilities for the use of bicycles in their activities.
DURATION AND GEOGRAPHICAL SCOPE
The expected duration of this project is during the useful life of the adapted bicycle or adapted tricycle and provided we have a budget for its maintenance. It will be made available to families / entities interested in using them.
The project location area is the Community of Madrid. It is worth noting that the foundation has experience in the development of a project in the province of Alicante, thanks to a donation of adapted bicycles that we received in 2013 and that have been put into service for people with disabilities. Since its inception, this project has reached more 1,000 beneficiaries.
Beneficiaries
– People with disabilities, including severe multiple disabilities, and their relatives in the Community of Madrid.
– Entities that work in the field of disability in the Community of Madrid.
– Volunteers of the Lukas Foundation.
We belong to the Spanish Association of Foundations, we are controlled by Fundación Lealtad, and we comply with the 9 principles of transparency and good practices established by this Association.
OUR BENEFACTORS LITERALLY GIVE
“SMILES ON WHEELS”
PROJECT JUSTIFICATION
- In March 2016, we launched the adapted bicycle service in Madrid after a mother sought us out on behalf of her son. She had seen the bikes at the center in Alicante, and wondered how she could bring this wonderful opportunity to Madrid so her growing son would be able to enjoy the outdoors in Madrid, now that the apparatus in the parks had become too small for him.
- Seeing the need for adapted leisure in the capital, different recruitment events were held in Madrid to buy 3 adapted bicycles, 2 riders for companions and 1 Wehoo children’s trailer as well as a trailer to store them. We were grateful for the participation of families from the Colegio de E.E. San Rafael and the Shelter of Santa María de la Paz (for homeless people), where we inaugurated this service.
- Thus we provided first bicycle service in Madrid, along with the necessary support to help with the maintenance of the bikes and reception of families through the generous people in their hostel.
- Thanks to having this space we were available to children, young people and the elderly from different entities of dependent people in Madrid:
– Association of children oncology of Madrid-ASION,
– Numen Foundation, Comprehensive care for cerebral palsy and other brain damage related.
– Association for the assistance to the attention to the cerebral paralytic-ATENPACE,
– C.E.I.P. Forest Schools.
– Fundación Also, with whom we have collaborated to offer more models of adapted bicycles.
– Fundación Ana Valdivia, with which we plan to continue growing by offering them for their annual entertainment program.
– Users of Fundación Lukas.
- In September 2019, with four of our young people (with a disability greater than 75%, with medication, oxygen needs, eating by gastric tube,) we completed four days on the Camino de Santiago. These adapted bikes gave their riders so much fun and there was a lot of emotion on this trip, as these young people were able to participate in this thrilling sporting activity.
- In January 2020 we participated with our adapted bicycles in the Three Kings Parade. The perfect setting to demonstrate that all children and young people can have the opportunity ride a bike both in Madrid and in any other town.
- In March 2020 we inaugurated the new adapted bicycle rental service in Madrid Río, in a bicycle shop for everyone called MOBEO. Then the pandemic came and we had to suspend the service for more than a year.
- In September 2021 we re-opened the bike rental service at the Mobeo-Madrid Río location, with three Duet bikes, two Co-Pilots, a Fun 2 Go and a Midi available to everyone
- The donation of the call “Euros from your payroll” from Banco Santander has allowed us to give a boost to this project so that it would be alive again and draw #sonrisassobreruedas.
- This project has also been possible thanks to the support of ambassadors and prescribers of this adapted leisure option belonging to different fields: the artist Ouka Leele, the pianist Judith Jáuregui, the expert on the Camino de Santiago Javier Pitillas, etc … and the financial collaboration of donors, partners and collaborating companies who have believed in the value of adapted bicycles.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO DONATE A BIKE?
Get in touch with us and we will tell you all the details about the models we are currently testing and we would like to incorporate into our project.
Contact person:
MARIA DEL PALACIO
maria.delpalacio@fundacionlukas.org
BICICLETAS ADAPTADAS EN ALICANTE
The Alicante Adapted Bikes service is integrated into the programs of the Lukas Foundation Center and has seven adapted electric bicycles, a trailer to transport them, an adapted children’s tricycle, two wehoo children’s trailers and three adapted strollers (one from Kook Stride and two from Advance mobility). All these elements allow you to enjoy a leisure activity adapted to the family with undoubted therapeutic advantages and benefits in the cognitive and motor area of people with disabilities.
Bicycles allow you to use the two pieces together or use the chair independently as a support or stroller. And on the other hand, Wehoo trailers are ideal for children who can pedal and who do not exceed 37 kilos. We also have a map and a guide of our own creation that includes accessible routes through the San Juan de Alicante area.
Taking into account all these benefits, we decided to offer this service free of charge throughout the year to the members of our Foundation, and it has been achieved thanks to a shared grant from the Rotary clubs of Alicante, Meppel and Vlissingen with the help of the Rotary Foundation. and to subsequent subsidies from the AMA Foundation and the Valencian Regional Government.
Contact in Alicante: Yolanda Santos / yolanda.santos@fundacionlukas.org
Tel. 96 565 18 83