Tobolsk hosted launch of "We'll travel this road together!" project
23 september 2021
September 23 saw Tobolsk’s Crystal Sports Palace host the grand launch of the "We’ll travel this road together" project and a presentation of five new tandem bicycles procured thanks to Tobolsk Sporting Events Center's emerging as the winner of a grant program implemented under SIBUR's Formula for Good Deeds social investment program. The project’s principal goal is to create an enabling environment for facilitating active living and socialization of people with disabilities, both vision-impaired and the totally blind.
Once implemented, the "We'll travel this road together" project will enable blind and vision-impaired people to engage in a completely new type of activity, to go on bicycle rides, and to even take part in competitions going forward. We would like to thank SIBUR and organizers of Formula for Good Deeds’ contest of socially significant projects for their help and support. We hope for a close and fruitful cooperation, Victoria-Anastasia Smetanina, the Project’s Manager and Deputy Director of Tobolsk Sporting Events Center, noted.
A bicycle tandem melds people together into a close-knit team consisting of a pilot and a stocker. Unlike any other sport, it is quite suitable for people with disabilities. This is a unique vehicle one can use for traveling, competing, and just enjoying one’s life. A sight of a bicycle tandem always brings a smile to passersby’s faces. We would like to thank SIBUR and the Formula for Good Deeds program for the new opportunities they offer us and hope to implement further new projects together with them, Natalia Vazhenina, the Project’s Manager and coach at the Children's and Youths’ Sports School No. 1, a group 3 sight-impaired person, commented.
Being disabled should not mean that one has to be consigned to being cast out or living in isolation from society. There are numerous examples showing that people’s handicaps should not impede their being able to do sports. With the arrival of these bicycle tandems, we now have a real opportunity to enjoy a quality leisure time with tangible benefits for our health . Cycling teaches good coordination, improves one’s strength, endurance, and overall health. We would like to extend our appreciation to SIBUR for its Formula for Good Deeds’ contest of socially significant projects and for helping with the implementation of the "We will travel this road together" project. Your help and commitment do deserve receiving proper recognition. We hope for further close cooperation in organizing and conducting sports rehabilitation events among the disabled and in promoting healthy living in general, Olga Nepomnyashchikh, chairman of Tobolsk’s local organization of the All-Russian Society of the Blind, added.
Background information:
The Formula for Good Deeds, SIBUR's social investment program was launched on February 1, 2016, in all key cities where the company operates. It is being implemented across six focus areas covering all essential social sector domains: urban development, education and science, sports and healthy living, environmental protection, culture, and volunteering.
In 2016-2021, 781 projects in nineteen cities emerged as grant competitions’ winners. The grants’ funds have been used to repair and rebuild social facilities, improve and beautify parks and other public spaces, organize sports and mass-scale cultural events, equip school laboratories, and take other measures to improve the quality of life in the regions where the company operates..