Each year, Americans purchase millions of bicycles. We also throw away millions of old ones, leaving many more abandoned in basements and garages across the US. Meanwhile, there are many people in third world countries who could use them for daily transportation: to deliver goods to market, provide services to customers, and get to school or a job. Pedals For Progress was founded by Dave Schweidenback, because he wanted to address both problems. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador, Dave had seen the difference that a bicycle could make in someone's quality of life in a poor country. So in 1991, Dave collected and shipped his first load of bikes. Since then Pedals For Progress has shipped over 60,000 bikes overseas, 11,000 in 2002 alone. P4P has partnered with local organizations in Honduras, Moldova, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Barbados, El Salvador, Eritrea, Fiji, Ghana, and Guatemala.
Locally, the Blue Ridge Bicycle Club (www.blueridgebicycleclub.org) is organizing a used bike collection on Saturday, May 3, 2003. It will be held at Liberty Bicycles parking lot at 1378 Hendersonville Road, Asheville, NC, from 9 AM till 1 PM. (Liberty Bicycles is in the Harris Teeter Shopping Center near the Blue Ridge Parkway) Bikes will be collected and "compacted", by removing the pedals, turning the handlebars, and lowering the seat. They will be delivered to Arlington VA in early June. Bike parts, in good condition, and cash donations will also be accepted. Tax-deductible receipts are given to donors for the value of the bike and any cash donation. It costs about $25.00 per bike for repair parts and shipping, so P4P asks for a $10.00 donation to partially offset these costs.
Pedals for Progress partners with a local organization in the receiving country. The local organization sets up a training program in bike mechanics to fix the bikes, then sells them at local market prices. The profit then allows the organization to pay the shipping costs on subsequent bikes. Most bikes are shipped to Central or South America, and Western Africa.
Pedals for Progress has received several awards for its program, both from an environmental and humanitarian standpoint. These awards include the 1997 Shriver Award for Humanitarian Service, 1998 Bicycling Magazine's Industry Award for Recycling, and the 2001 Royal Geographic Society Shell Sustainable Development Award. The organization is a "hand up", not a "hand out", because it trains people in bike mechanics, marketing, business, and improves the living standard of the person receiving the bike. Bike recipients use the bikes to commute to work, school, and for business
If you have a used bike that you would like to donate, please bring it to the collection point on May 3, 2003. This is also a great project for a church, civic organization, or homeowner's association to undertake. Call David L. Lee at 828-658-3351 for more information, or to discuss a pickup for five bikes or more.
For more information or an interview:
David L. Lee, Local Volunteer
828-778-1133 Home
828-670-9474 Work
dleeasheville@yahoo.com
David Schweidenback, President
Pedals For Progress
908-638-4811
pdls4prgrss@worldnet.att.net
Keith Oberg
VA Coordinator
Pedals For Progress
703-525-0931
koberg@bellatlantic.net
Dear Fellow Cyclists,
As some of you know I did an impromptu collection of bikes for Pedals for Progress last year. I delivered about 50 bikes to the Pedals For Progress loading station in DC in May. In the last 11 years, Pedals For Progress has shipped over 60,000 bikes to third world countries for local organizations to refurbish, and sell to local residents to use for basic transportation. It is a "hand up" organization, as opposed to a "hand out" organization. See their website for more information.
As of December, I acquired a free storage space at Georges Stor-Mor on Patton Avenue. This has allowed me to collect bikes one or two at a time and stockpile them until I have 75 or so to make a run to Washington, DC, where the bikes are loaded and shipped to their final destination.
If you have a bike to donate, or have friends or neighbors that have old bikes that are in repairable condition, please keep me in mind. Both road and mounain bikes are welcome and usable. Bikes can be dropped off here at my office in Asheville, or I will also pick bikes up in town.
Additionally, if you would like to involve your civic club, church, or other organization in a formal bike collection, this spring or summer, please contact me as well. I am willing to help you do some of the planning and collection-day work to make it a success.
Note: It takes about $25.00 to ship a bike overseas. Pedals For Progress asks for a $10.00 donation to help cover part of this cost. The person donating will receive a receipt for the cash, and bike donation. If the donor is itemizing taxes, they can generally save more on taxes than their $10.00 cash donation with the bike value on the receipt. A reasonably good bike would be valued at $100+ on the receipt, a $30.00 tax savings if you itemize and are in the 30% tax bracket.
Bike shops and bike sales people, if you would keep Pedals For Progress in mind for donation of used bikes where the customer has an old bike, I would welcome those as well as "take off" parts that are still usable.
David L. Lee;
Branch Office Manager
Carolina Farm Credit, ACA; Asheville Br. Office
#003
P. O. Box 1760; Asheville, NC 28802
828-670-9474- Office; 828-665-2395 X15- Direct
Number
828-667-0974- Fax
© Blue Ridge Bicycle Club Inc. 2004