PeopleForBikes, the movement to ‘make bicycling better for everyone’, has partnered with the Scott Naturals brand, a flagship brand of Kimberly-Clark, to grow the 2015 National Bike Challenge.
The National Bike Challenge is a nationwide US event uniting tens of thousands of current bicyclists — and encouraging countless new riders to participate. In its simplest form, it is a logging centre for people to record bike rides as part of the national community of bike riders.
It is a free and easy way to challenge individuals, companies and communities to start riding a bike — or ride more often. Participants compete on a local, state and national level. The challenge aims to unite at least 75,000 riders to pedal 35 million miles from 1 May 2015 until 30 September 2015.
“The National Bike Challenge is a time-tested program with tremendous potential,” said PeopleForBikes President Tim Blumenthal. “We are proud to lead this targeted effort to get more individuals, businesses and communities riding bikes and we will work closely with Kimberly-Clark to keep growing the Challenge.”
Launched in 2009 as an internal bike riding campaign for Kimberly-Clark’s 50,000+ employees, the Challenge went national in 2012 under the direction of the League of American Bicyclists, with additional support from PeopleForBikes. In 2014, more than 47,000 riders across the US and around the world participated, logging more than 23 million miles.
“We are honuored to partner with PeopleForBikes on the 2015 National Bike Challenge,” said Rob Gusky, Kimberly-Clark’s Ambassador of Cycling. “It is exciting to see a grassroots program that started with four employees at Kimberly-Clark’s Neenah, WI location grow into a national program positively affecting thousands of people. We encourage others to join the challenge in 2015!”
In preparation for this year’s challenge spring kick-off, PeopleForBikes has engaged past participants and introduced the program to its broad group of supporters, which includes more than one million individuals and thousands of bike companies and retailers. The challenge encourages people to track their bike rides, form teams to compete with their friends and co-workers for both prizes and bragging rights, and simply spend more high-quality time on two wheels.
PeopleForBikes has worked with Kimberly-Clark over the past several months to get more major corporations to participate in this free program, which boosts employee health and wellness and contributes to improving the environment by replacing car travel with clean, healthy bicycle trips.
Some of the corporations participating in the challenge include: 3M, Allstate, Amway, AT&T, Eli Lilly and Company, Google, Hewlett-Packard IBM, Lockheed Martin, Northwest Mutual and Texas Instruments.
In addition to Kimberly-Clark, 2015 National Bike Challenge sponsors include: 3M, Thrivent Financial, Volkswagen and Wells Fargo.
Registration for the 2015 National Bike Challenge is simple and free at nationalbikechallenge.org. After creating a profile, riders can easily begin logging miles using mobile apps such as Strava, MapMyRide, Endomondo and Moves.
Kimberly-Clark and its well-known global brands are a part of life for people in more than 175 countries. Every day, nearly a quarter of the world’s population makes use of one of the company’s brands and the solutions it provides to enhance health, hygiene and well-being. With brands such as Kleenex, Scott, Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex and Depend, Kimberly-Clark holds number 1 or 2 share positions in more than 80 countries.
www.nationalbikechallenge.org
www.kimberly-clark.com
