Meet today’s Charity Spotlight WeCycle representing the great city of Atlanta and doing the Bike Thing! WeCycle is a bicycle co-op and community organization focused on creating a regenerative paradigm for constituents within a three mile radius of the Atlanta University Center- think Spelman, Morehouse and Clark Atlanta University – also known as the West End. Their goal is prepare research on the health, the economic, and the environmental impact of cycling as a recreational outlet or an alternate means of transportation.
WeCycle plans on promoting bike culture through all avenues of art including: the visual arts, fashion, music and design. Highlighting all the facets of this new progressive, inspirational, and progressive community in the most creative ways possible. There will be no dull moments.
WeCycle bases their ethics in light of Kwanzaa principles:
Umoja = Unity: To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race
Kujichagulia = Self-Determination: To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves
Ujima = Collective Work and Responsibility: To build and maintain our community together and make our brother’s and sister’s problems our problems and to solve them together
Ujamaa = Cooperative Economics To build and maintain our stores , shops and other businesses and to profit from them together
Nia = Purpose: To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba = Creativity: To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial that we inherited it.
Imani = To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
Created by a man of Morehouse College CEO and founder of WeCycle Atlanta, Shawn Deangelo Walton has been a lifestyle cyclist for over a decade and has combined the benefits of cycling and gardening in order to service his community. Raised in many of Metro Atlanta’s neighborhoods, the Ashview Heights community of West Atlanta is where Walton gave birth to Wecycle Atlanta. WeCycle Atlanta was formed while Walton was attending Morehouse College, where he received a BA in childhood development. His initial vision was to promote cycling and support commuters but it seamlessly and organically transformed into much more when Walton was introduced to the Ashview Community Garden. His vision quickly expanded to fit an urban agricultural element. Today, Walton exposes youth in the community to an education far beyond books. He teaches life skills with WeCycle Atlanta’s WHEELS: Work Ethic, Health, Environment, Economics, Leadership and Sustainability program. Through WeCylce Atlanta, Walton will inevitably leave indelible impressions on the youth and community as a whole; in turn effecting generations to come.
The WeCycle Mission is to revitalize the Historic West Side of Atlanta by exhibiting health, environment, and economic intelligence through biking, research and fellowship. They facilitate this mission through the use of their community Bike Shop, which serves as a headquarters for their educational, advocacy and operational goals.
Support their movement, follow them on Twitter and Instagram and like them on Facebook. Don’t forget you can always donate to their cause or simply volunteer learn more here.
Upcoming WeCycle Event! Join WeCycle on April 4th to Do The Bike Thing and Give Back in Atlanta, GA!
