Mäder pledged to donate to charity €10 for every rider he beat in the general classification as well as €1 for every rider he beat on each stage. That turned out to be a total of €4,529. But the Swiss cyclist did not have a charity in mind when he made the pledge, and left it up to his fans on Twitter to decide to which environmental organization they would like him to give the money.
As said in my previous tweet I’ll add 10 Euros for every rider in GC too! (1370)
Donation of 4529 Euros will be done today!
Thanks to all of you who supported me throughout this Vuelta!
Recover and up we go to the next! 😴— Gino Mäder (@maedergino) September 7, 2021
“The Vuelta is done and dusted,” he said after the final stage of the Vuelta. “It was a great experience and a race I’ll remember for a long, long time! After going through all the comments, I found that Just Diggit was the most liked comment!”
JustDiggit is a Dutch NGO whose self-proclaimed mission is the following: “Global warming is moving in fast. Our Earth is drying up. Our job is to reverse it, and there’s one decade to do it. We know it is necessary to keep the global temperature increase below 2°C, to stop irreversible damage to the planet that sustains us. We need to act together and we need to act fast. ”
The organization’s solution to that challenge is to cool down the planet by regreening Africa. In this work, JustDiggit works closely with local communities and partners to restore dry land.
The Dutch interactive music video platform @XITENL joined us on our mission to regreen and cool down the planet! By digging into #StreamToRegreen, they'll help us reach 100 million+ households across the EU and North America. 🙌 https://t.co/KdKYNt7MXX
— Justdiggit (@justdiggit) October 5, 2021
“Proven regreening techniques include rainwater harvesting (digging bunds), tree restoration and developing grass seed banks,” the group explains. Bunds are semicircular pits that capture rainwater and ensure rainwater harvesting in dry areas, allowing vegetation to return. More than 145,000 bunds have so far been dug by JustDiggit projects.
In addition, 60,000 ha of land are being restored and some 6.3 million trees have been regenerated in the past 30 months.
In Singida, 232 farmers of which 47% are women, recently completed the Training of Trainers program from our partner @leadtz. These new ambassadors of regreening are now ready to inspire and activate their fellow farmers and thus bring back 2 million trees together! 🌳 pic.twitter.com/2uA1of9L3E
— Justdiggit (@justdiggit) September 25, 2021
All its projects, JustDiggit says, are owned and implemented by communities that live off the land on which the projects are carried out.
So, from the folks here at WLC, a big thank you to the cycling fans who helped the Swiss rider choose a truly worthy recipient of the money. And a huge thanks to Gino Mäder for his original and generous gesture and for his contribution to the fight against global warming. We wish him more success in the future, and more generous gestures for the betterment of the planet.
