Put the pedal to the metal!

Vedi (Ararat Province), being a rural small town, remains far from the main civil, political and innovative activities occurring in Armenia.
Socio-economic grave situation and, as a result, high level of unemployment cause people and youth to lead a sedentary and non-healthy lifestyle (lack of exercise, smoking, depression, etc.).
With an aim to break this negative cycle and in order to promote certain positive and healthy habits among citizens of Vedi, our team aims to install an electricity generating exercise bicycles in a public park in the very center of Vedi Town.
The energy, which will be generated through pedaling, will feed a battery, which consequently will serve as an energy source for new LED lighting in Vedi Park.
Through this innovative approach we wish to tackle several problems:
• Promote healthy lifestyle. The more people will use the exercise bicycle, the more electric power will be generated. In that way, locals will have a strong motivation to exercise more and even compete against each other in order to perform better athletic results.
• Promote the use of LED lamps. Not every resident of Vedi is aware of energy saving features of LED technology. We get a chance to provide those people with a true illustration of cost-effective energy consumption.
• Improve park appearance. Our project will give a new look to Vedi Park and will make it more modern and attractive for residents.
• Promote science and education among young people. In other words, we will demonstrate them that knowledge has a great potential to benefit all of us.
• (last but not the least) Promote bicycle culture! We will support the use of bicycles, and promote the idea that cycling is cool and healthy.

We clearly recognize that our project might be too ambitious, challenging and peculiar for a rural town like Vedi. But, on the other hand, we also believe that big things have small beginnings.

Подкрепен от Yerevan (March 2017)