Champion of Modes award winner - Teau Aiturau Champion of Modes award winner - Teau Aiturau
Teau (Tee) Aiturau is the winner of the Champion of Modes award from the Travelwise Choices Awards 2020.
Teau (Mr Tee) Aiturau accepting the Champion of Modes award.You've probably heard the saying "it takes a village", well for change to happen in the Mangere cycling community, it only took one man. Teau Aiturau, or Mr Tee as he's known, has been encouraging and supporting cycling in the Mangere community for years. He has worked tirelessly to make events happen, and to get more people to give cycling a go.
Despite the uncertainty and road blocks COVID-19 has thrown us, Tee managed to organise a multitude of cycling events this year.
February, aka bike month, kicked off with two big events:
- the Waitangi Day Pedal of Honour Challenge
- and the Tuaman Ride fundraiser.
The first event encouraged Maori and Pasifika men to try riding a bike and complete the 21km challenge. The second event involved David Tua and his boxing team, along with Auckland mayor Phil Goff, as well as over forty other enthusiastic cyclists.
Tee also started rolling out his BikeFIT program in East Tamaki School before COVID-19 put it on hold in March-April. Once lockdown resumed in May, Tee started BikeFIX, a basic bike maintenance/repairs activation which happened once a month.
In June he launched the Fat 2 Freedom (F2F) Winter Fitness program to motivate people to use cycling to get fit and have fun for free.
July and August saw Tee organise a cycling tour of three Mangere Marae's to celebrate Matariki, the third annual Ladies Pink Bike Rave and a Cook Island themed bike ride for Cook Island Language week.
He is also getting geared up for the Biketober Halloween Ride, the Mangere School Triathlon in November, and Christmas in the Carpark in December.
Tee's full calendar and his work to encourage cycling in the Mangere community particularly with the Maori and Pasifika community, has earned him the Individual Champion of Modes Award for 2020.