Tonny is ready for his charity bike ride to France. Photo: Omroep Gelderland
WINTERSWIJK – Tonny Stoltenborg (69) from the Achterhoek will draw attention to sustainability for twenty days next month. He doesn’t just do that: he wants to collect money for the construction of a food forest in Winterswijk.
Tonny demands attention in a special way, because in twenty days he cycles to Grenoble in the south of France – and not on an electric bicycle, but an orange velomobile, popularly called banana bike.
“I’ve had it for four years now and I really like it,” says Tonny, who has already put quite a few miles on it. The journey he is now going to make is special, because the distance to Grenoble is no less than a thousand kilometers. During the bike ride he wants to draw attention to sustainability. “I want to talk about sustainability with people I meet along the way. For example, with a mayor or with children,” he says. “I then make videos of that and put them on my website.”
I am very happy with what the municipality of Winterswijk is doing and I am happy to contribute to further spreading the story about sustainability
Raising money for new food forest
Why Tony is doing this? He says he has been working on sustainability, nature and the environment for a very long time. Tonny has already worked for various organizations. “I want to leave the world good for posterity and therefore also do something concrete.”
A food forest has to be created in Winterswijk and Tonny has linked a crowdfunding to the bike ride to France. 1 million euros must be raised for that food forest. “I would like to create a 10-hectare food forest in Winterswijk. With this I want to show farmers, among others, how you could do that. The distance from Winterswijk to Grenoble is about a thousand kilometers. That is 1 million meters. I would therefore like to receive a donation of 1 euro.”
Why to Grenoble and not to Paris?
Grenoble was chosen for a reason. At the end of October, the Green Leafmeeting place. Here the new nominees are announced for the European Green Leaf Award. That is a prize that the municipality of Winterswijk won exactly one year ago.
What is Green Leaf Award?
The European Union has created this competition because cities and villages need to be made greener and more sustainable. The winner can call itself the greenest municipality or city in Europe. There are two categories: the EU Green Capital Award and the EU Green Leaf Award. Cities with more than one hundred thousand inhabitants are eligible for the Green Capital Award and the winner of that award receives 600,000 euros. Since 2015, municipalities with between twenty thousand and one hundred thousand inhabitants can also win a prize. That’s the Green Leaf Award. This prize is won by a maximum of two municipalities and yields 200,000 euros per municipality. Winterswijk won the Green Leaf Award last year.
“We won that prize because we are doing well in the field of sustainability,” says alderman Gosse Visser. “What particularly struck the jury is that many initiatives have been taken up from the bottom up.”
The price also means a great responsibility. “As a municipality, you also have to spread your story further. That is why there will be a two-day conference next month.”
Rain barrel campaign
Winterswijk has also been awarded a sum of money by winning the award: 200,000 euros. “We have already done a number of great things with this: for example, we have had a rain barrel campaign. Residents could receive a rain barrel for free. In addition, there will be a large vintage market in the center of Winterswijk next Sunday. Green Leaf Vintage Market stands for sustainability. Residents can come into contact with sustainability in a low-threshold way. People can also ask all their questions in the field of energy saving.”
In addition, residents are looking at what else could be done with the money, because it is not yet finished. About 80,000 euros have now been used, which means that more than half is still left.
Are you also cycling?
Back to Tonny in his orange bike. He is proud of Winterswijk. “I am very happy with what the municipality is doing and I am happy to contribute to further spreading the story about sustainability.”
Tonny departs from Winterswijk on 6 October. “In principle, I cycle alone, of course. There are a number of people who have indicated that they will cycle a bit at the beginning. In addition, there are also people who join up halfway through. But everyone is of course welcome to cycle with me.”
