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A proud moment in the history of XBHP Kolkata!
It all started with us planning for our anniversary ride. The social media at this time was filled with human cries of pain, misery and sorrow caused by the unforgiving rain in Chennai.
We decided to stand with Chennai at this time of need instead of celebrating the occasion.
Our initial plan was to have a fund & relief material collection drive on Dec 20th’15, where we will reach out to all our biking brothers and ask them to contribute for the cause. Time was of essence here for the people in Chennai and this prompted us to prepone the event and it was finalized for Dec 13th. We had exactly one week for the event and nothing was set except for the date.
Our first task at hand was to identify an NGO through which we could send all the relief material. We contacted many and finalized to work with an NGO called – The Climbers, who is a branch of "Goonj". What followed was a crazy week. Finalizing on the banner theme, location, participants, reaching out to various biking groups and more.
The involvement and participation of all “Active” XBHP Kolkata members was phenomenal and the only reason this event was even possible at the first place.
The Big Day came sooner than expected. All members assembled at a predefined location to start the ride to Azad Hind Dhaba at NH-2 (approx. 60+ kms from city) - location for“The Event – Help Chennai”. We were also accompanied by four members of the NGO in two cars. On our way to the Dhaba we saw few groups pass us with sacks of rice and other relief materials tied to their pillion seat. This filled our hearts with joy and an urgency to ride faster as we had to set up “shop” before others reached.
We reached Azad hind on time and was able to setup the location with banners and secure a place for all the relief materials to be collected.
The response we got from our biking brothers of the city was heart-warming and overwhelming. Lost the count of bikers who participated and showed that they cared. The relief materials we collected was way over what we had expected. A mini truck had to be hired in order to take back the materials collected apart from over many thousands in cash collected. Additional materials was bought and handed over to the NGO with the fund that was collected.
I will let the pictures do rest of the talking.
At a time when people are fighting over religion, politics and petty difference, the spirit shown by the Kolkata biking community to help collect relief materials for Chennai is hearth warming. On one hand there were people who witnessed the event but did not care about the sufferings of the people in Chennai and on the other hand people rode/drove from far off places to contribute for the cause.
A big Thank you to all the bikers who participated, with people like you around humanity still has hope.
It all started with us planning for our anniversary ride. The social media at this time was filled with human cries of pain, misery and sorrow caused by the unforgiving rain in Chennai.
We decided to stand with Chennai at this time of need instead of celebrating the occasion.
Our initial plan was to have a fund & relief material collection drive on Dec 20th’15, where we will reach out to all our biking brothers and ask them to contribute for the cause. Time was of essence here for the people in Chennai and this prompted us to prepone the event and it was finalized for Dec 13th. We had exactly one week for the event and nothing was set except for the date.
Our first task at hand was to identify an NGO through which we could send all the relief material. We contacted many and finalized to work with an NGO called – The Climbers, who is a branch of "Goonj". What followed was a crazy week. Finalizing on the banner theme, location, participants, reaching out to various biking groups and more.
The involvement and participation of all “Active” XBHP Kolkata members was phenomenal and the only reason this event was even possible at the first place.
The Big Day came sooner than expected. All members assembled at a predefined location to start the ride to Azad Hind Dhaba at NH-2 (approx. 60+ kms from city) - location for“The Event – Help Chennai”. We were also accompanied by four members of the NGO in two cars. On our way to the Dhaba we saw few groups pass us with sacks of rice and other relief materials tied to their pillion seat. This filled our hearts with joy and an urgency to ride faster as we had to set up “shop” before others reached.
We reached Azad hind on time and was able to setup the location with banners and secure a place for all the relief materials to be collected.
The response we got from our biking brothers of the city was heart-warming and overwhelming. Lost the count of bikers who participated and showed that they cared. The relief materials we collected was way over what we had expected. A mini truck had to be hired in order to take back the materials collected apart from over many thousands in cash collected. Additional materials was bought and handed over to the NGO with the fund that was collected.
I will let the pictures do rest of the talking.
A big Thank you to all the bikers who participated, with people like you around humanity still has hope.
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