Have you heard of Scooter Aid?

I received an email from my contact at Micro Scooters a couple of days ago and she said she had news about something that would be 'right up my street' and she was so right.

We love Micro Scooters in this house, the girls were bought their first ones when they were 2 years old and those lasted until they were 5 and got too tall for them.  Those scooters have now gone to two little lads who need them and my girls have their beautiful Union Jack Maxi Micro scooters.  I now find that if I had not been passing on the scooters for another couple of kids to enjoy I could have sent them back to Micro for them to be tested and refurbished and sent off to an orphanage in Kenya so that some underprivileged kids could enjoy them.

I love that, like really love that.  Yes I am still very much in the moment, having only just returned from Ethiopia a week ago but this literally made me cry. It is so important in my opinion that when people do well in business they give something back. Until today I did not realise Micro Scooters were going this, as well as this new Scooter Aid initiative they also donate scooters to children in hospital and have fundraisers at schools allowing the school to keep 10% of funds raised.  Brilliant!

Before I gave our old Mini Micro scooters to the boys I was pondering what I would do with them and I had decided I would pass them to school.  Well used Mini Micro scooters seem to go for about £10 on ebay and whilst extra cash is always nice, that amount is not going to change the world so I prefer to pass them on so they can continue to be enjoyed. I have to admit that had I known about this scheme first I would have sent the 2 scooters off and given my friend another couple of non-brand scooters that we have.

Giving a scooter to Scooter Aid is really easy -

1. Talk to your children about why you are donating their old scooter, write a letter with them to be sent to the children at the orphanage along with their old scooter
2. Package up the Micro scooter (if must be their brand not just any one) in a box or suitable wrapping
3. Print off a pre-paid postage label from the Micro Scooters website
4. Take the package to the post office
5. Micro will check over the scooter and fix/ refurbish it if necessary
6. Then Christmas 2012 they aim to deliver 60 scooters to the Tumaini Children's Home in Kenya and each child will then have a scooter each, as well as their first ever Christmas Party

But they cannot achieve that objective without us - the average person who has an old Micro scooter sitting out in the back garden.  Go on take the 1/2 hour it will require and box it up and send it back, so some good can come of it. Just look at these little ones below as they tried out a scooter for the first time earlier this year.

The founders of Micro Scooter UK, Anna Gibson and Philippa Gogarry said "As Mums ourselves, we know how invaluable scooters have been for our children. We hope that Scooter Aid will help less fortunate children rediscover their childhood through play - a gift no child should be without".  It was a pleasure to read that if this pilot works well they hope to spread the initiative to other children's home in other developing countries as well.

I can hand on heart say that this is a super scheme that I'll be proud to support when my girls finally outgrow their next Micro scooters.

Disclosure: Earlier this year my girls were sent a scooter each to review. We were not instructed what to write and I remain honest.