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  • Marty Leenhouts hopes to win a grant in a national contest to spread the word about electric bikes and scooters to university campuses. File photo

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April 11, 2010

Electric bike advocate out to win soft drink grant

Wants to bring scooters to MSU, Iowa State campuses

By Tim Krohn Free Press Staff Writer

GARDEN CITY — Marty Leenhouts is hoping to bring electric bikes and scooters to a couple of university campuses to promote the green transportation among students and faculty.

First, he needs enough votes to win a piece of grant money being offered by the Pepsi Refresh grant program.

“I really believe e-bikes are useful for college students, but it’s tough to get the word out. It’s better than starting your car to go to class or from class to work, any of those short trips,” Leenhouts said.

He started a side business at his rural Garden City home last year selling electric bikes and scooters. He also runs Web site businesses, teaches online and recently opened a barn retreat center.

He’s hoping to win a $50,000 grant from the www.refresheverything.com contest. People can go to the site, sign up and vote once per day for their favorite proposals. The voting runs through end of April. Leenhouts is now ranked 99 and must rank in the top 10 to get the funding. There are more than 1,000 people competing for the funding.

An explanation of his proposal is at www.refresheverything.com/greencampus.

If funded, he expects to start the programs at the University of Minnesota and Iowa State, the two campuses he got the most interest from. Both have active student-led green initiative groups, he said.

The funding would pay for about 15 scooters for each campus, for marketing and a student intern to run the program on each campus.

The students would decide exactly how to set up the program.

“Iowa State is thinking of renting them to students so a lot of them could try it. It would be however they want to set it up.”

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