5000 Bikes Left after the Burning Man Concert to be Given to Hurricane Hit Towns

Over 5,000 bicycles were left at this year’s Burning Man festival in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada. Now, these bikes will be given a new home.

According to Bicycling Magazine, these abandoned bikes will be given to victims of Hurricanes Irma, Harvey, and Maria. Bikes can help residents get around the washed out roads and avoid long fuel lines when trying to get from point A to point B.

The BBC reports that Burning Man contractor, Matthew Rockwell, has already gathered about 500 bikes to give to hurricane victims. He plans on bringing them to Houston as soon as possible, and may even return with additional bikes if the trip goes well.

Other workers who rounded up bicycles at the Burning Man campgrounds have started cleaning and prepping over 100 bikes to ship them out of Reno to hurricane devastated areas. These bikes will be given to distribution programs and organizations throughout Florida and the Caribbean.

The project’s GoFundMe page has already raised $6,000 of their $11,000 goal in order to pay for shipping and handling for these bikes to get where they need to go.

The crowdfunding campaign’s creator, Meg Kiihne, says she first got the idea after seeing the viral photo “Burner bikes”.

“As someone who has worked as a live event director/producer and has had the vision for years of getting more bikes to more lower-income communities, I honestly didn’t think much,” Kiihne said. “I reacted on what I knew was needed and could be done.”