A huge boost for all 170 volunteers. This is what Henk Nieuwenhuizen from Sleen calls the award of the ‘Sports Pearl of Drenthe’ to the Duofietsen project in the municipality of Coevorden. “We can really be proud of this.”
Last Monday he and other members of the Duofietsen Foundation from this municipality suddenly found themselves on stage in Assen, during the Sports Gala in Drenthe. “We really didn’t expect that in advance,” he says. “We thought it was a great honor that we had been nominated for this prize by the municipality of Coevorden, but that we would also win it…”
The prize, awarded for the first time this year, consists of a bronze work of art and is intended for a person, association or organization that has committed itself to sports and exercise in Drenthe in a special and positive way in recent years. “A nice souvenir. It is mainly the pride that comes with it, we know that we are on the right track.”
The Duofietsen project has existed in Coevorden since 2011, when Nieuwenhuizen started with three duo bikes in Sleen. “We were not quite the first nationally with the duo bike at the time, but it was still fairly unique at the time,” says Nieuwenhuizen. “They soon became enthusiastic in Dalen too and we had to go back and forth with the bicycles for a year. We now have twelve electrically powered bicycles. In addition to Sleen, we have become active in Dalen, Aalden, Oosterhesselen, Zweeloo and Schoonebeek in recent years. .”
The aim is to give elderly people and people with disabilities who cannot cycle independently the opportunity to still take a bike ride. On the duo bike, together with a volunteer. From April to October, the bikes ride routes of about 25 kilometers several afternoons a week.