Lee Ravenscroft
Working Bikes
Basics of his Company
Working Bikes is a company that takes bikes that are not going to be used anymore and donates them to people in developing countries so that they can have access to jobs, education, and health care. The founder, Lee Ravenscroft, originally got his idea when he saw a truck filled with bikes going to the dump. After they were thrown away, Ravenscroft collected the bikes and continued to collect bikes from dumps for five years while he continued to work on building his organization off of others like Bikes Not Bombs and the American Friends Commitee.
The company currently works with many bike stores throughout the Midwest and has donated over 38,000 bikes, currently 6,000 per year. They get their bikes from individual donors at their drop off locations or from events that are set up to recycle bikes. Their bikes are mostly donated to Latin America and Africa, including El Salvador, Panama, Ghana and Uganda.
Comparison to Oprah Winfrey
Winfrey and Ravenscroft are both similar because they have charities that operate in developing countries and they worked at several jobs before they found one that clicked and became successful. Although, Winfrey is much more of a personality for her company than Ravenscroft and Winfrey also makes billions of dollars from her company.
Sources
"Working Bikes/ Giving Old Bikes New Homes." Working Bikes. N.p, n.d. Wed. Sept. 17. <http://www.workingbikes.org>.
Working Bikes