Pedals for Progress seeking donated bicycles for shipment to Africa.
By: Emily Craighead
WEST WINDSOR In a garage near you lies an unused bicycle that someone in Africa could ride to work one day. Just ask Susan Conlon, who’s helping to organize the Pedals for Progress bike collection to be held at the West Windsor Community Farmers’ Market from 9 a.m. to noon on June 18.
"A bike that’s sitting in somebody’s garage here can really find a second life," Ms. Conlon said. Anyone with an adult or child’s bicycle in repairable condition can drop off the bike, along with a $10 donation to help pay to ship the bike overseas, during that time.
The Mayor’s Bicycle & Pedestrian Task Force is sponsoring the collection in conjunction with Pedals for Progress, a nonprofit, New Jersey-based charity.
In the 14 years since Peace Corps veteran David Schweidenback founded Pedals for Progress, the organization has shipped 90,000 bicycles to agencies in developing countries, many of them in South America and Africa.
This year alone, it has collected and shipped 3,500 bikes.
"I’m not a ‘bikey’ this is economic development," Mr. Schweidenback said. "The easiest way to cure poverty is to get a job."
Getting to and from that job each day requires some form of transportation, and bicycles provide a cheap, non-polluting way to get to jobs, markets and schools.
"We go into poor, walking populations and introduce man’s greatest invention the wheel," Mr. Schweidenback said.
In the United States, where affluent Americans buy between 15 million and 20 million new bicycles every year and discard millions of old ones, wheels abound, according to Mr. Schweidenback.
"If you put a bike out to a yard sale, you can’t get five bucks," he said. "We offer people a nice tax-deductible receipt for the value of the donation."
Ms. Conlon, a member of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Task Force, said organizing the bike drive with Pedals for Progress has raised awareness even among task force members about using bicycles as a mode of transportation, not just for recreation.
"It certainly makes you think about the things we have and what we have and take for granted," Ms. Conlon said.
Pedals for Progress does stipulate the donated bikes be in good condition, rust-free, and the organization expects donors to contribute $10 toward the cost to collect and ship each bicycle.
"We’re looking for the best bikes we can get, because we’re going to ship them halfway around the world," Mr. Schweidenback said.
It will cost between $28 and $35 per bicycle to ship those collected in West Windsor to Ghana or Uganda, where Mr. Schweidenback said they will be sent.
When the bicycles arrive at their destination, they will be repaired and sold at about 10 percent of their value.
"That generates enough funds that we can cover the rest of the shipping costs," Mr. Schweidenback said.
A shipment may contain bicycles ranging in value from $5 to $1,000.
"There’s some guy in Colombia who wants to compete with Lance Armstrong" who will buy the $1,000 racing bike for $200, Mr. Schweidenback said. "That money can be used to subsidize the little kids’ bikes we’re probably going to sell for a dollar."
Pedals for Progress has also branched out in the past five years to accept used, portable sewing machines.
"While a bike will get someone five miles to a job, a sewing machine is a job," Mr. Schweidenback said.
For the Mayor’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Task Force, the bike collection is a relatively small effort members hope will help in a big way.
"This is about making a contribution on a global level with a local effort," Ms. Conlon said.
Rain or shine, in the morning June 18, volunteers will prepare donated bicycles for shipping by removing the pedals and turning the handlebars sideways. A representative from Pedals for Progress will come by at noon to pick up the bikes.
Individuals interested in volunteering to help, businesses wishing to support the effort, and anyone seeking more information about donating a bike can call members Ken Carlson at (609) 275-6355 or Ms. Conlon at (609) 936-1916.
More information about Pedals for Progress is available at its Web site, www.p4p.org.