The Bike to Close the Gap 2016 raised 105.000€ to support our projects!
Posted on Jul 6, 2016 12:00 AM by Close The Gap
On June 30th, more than 200 cyclists gathered together for the good cause at the Paterberg, Kluisbergen. Bike to Close the Gap is a sporting event, but certainly not a competition. Participants were cycling with each other for a common goal: raise funds to provide access to ICT to disadvantage children and young adults in Europe and in developing countries.
This 2016 edition was co- organized and co-sponsored by Close the Gap, Proximus and DNS Belgium, with Mr. Alexander De Croo, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Development and Digital Agenda as our special guest.
This Bike to Close the Gap 2016 edition was an exceptional one. With more than 200 bikers, the event raised 105.000 € that will support the projects of Close the Gap.
For this special occasion, the rain showed up but nothing stopped the 200 cyclists from competing against the Paterberg, clocking almost 3000 laps. Minister of Foreign Development and Digital Agenda, Mr. De Croo explained why development and digitalization are closely linked. He was also pleasantly surprised by the overwhelming private sector support for ICT for Development. Mr. De Croo strongly supported this event not only by cycling up the Paterberg, but also by committing to come next year to add some more laps. This show of support of the vice-minister is an excellent push for the organisiers of Bike to Close the Gap to ensure a 7th Edition.
The prototype of the Digitruck was also present, and participants were invited to take a small tour and see with their own eyes what a 40 foot refurbished container on solar power, mobile IT lab looks like.
The day ended with a small award ceremony, where trophies - symbolically shaped as the cobblestones that make the Paterberg so challenging - were handed out by Minister De Croo to the man and woman with the most laps.
The women’s honors went to Els Van Dycke from Centric Belgium with 20 laps and the men’s best went to Nick Van Den Heuvel from SIDN with 30 laps. A special award was handed out to Proximus for having the highest number of bikers (25), and an additional special award went to Nicolas Vander Auwera, for travelling from the "furthest city" (4570 - Marchin) to attend this unique event.
Because Close the Gap and its spinoff, WorldLoop are concerned about responsible reduce, reuse, recycle, WorldLoop’s longtime partner Recupel - Belgian e-waste agency - kindly offered to install a recycling point, where participants were invited to bring their small electrical broken appliances. We collected a dozen of electrical appliances!
You can download all the pictures from the Facebook page!