1.       Record 2007 Results

2.       Off to a Fast Start in 2008, Volunteers Needed March 15-16 and March 29

3.       Spring Collection Schedule

4.       Apologies for Late Mailing of Gift Acknowledgements

5.       Rockville Youth Bike Project

 

 

 1.  Record shipments in 2007

 

Bikes for the World completed its third year shipping 7,909 bikes to program partners in seven countries, including the United States. This represents a modest 2.8% increase over the previous year's "production", or bikes actually delivered. We estimate the number of bikes collected to have been more than 9,000 (it's hard to count when they are crammed into storage trailers). This estimate yields a net difference in carryover inventory of more than 1,000 bikes, between the figure registered in December 31, 2006, and December 31, 2007. BfW shipped these bikes in the first six weeks of the new year (see 2. Off to a Fast Start in 2008, below).

 

Countries receiving bikes during 2007 were (in descending order): Panama (2,345), Ghana (1,864), Costa Rica (1,820), Barbados (915), Uganda (456), Guatemala (451), and the United States (58). 

 

Many thanks to Bill Nickel for constructing and maintaining an Excel spreadsheet of bike shipments, by year and country, allowing us to accurately track and communicate trends.  

A 2007 annual report with this information and describing programs supported should be available later in the spring.  (A 2006 annual report, prepared by Hellen Gelband, is available on the Bikes for the World website.)

 

The one program disappointment in 2007-particularly acute after for us after featuring it in our end-of-year letter--was the postponement of the contemplated shipment to support secondary education in Senegal. After extensive efforts by BfW steering committee member Nick Griffin, Village Bicycle Project director Dave Peckham, and staff of the Academy for Educational Development, and with the full approval of the Ministry of Education and multiple endorsements in the Ministry of Finance, an obscure decree surfaced, prohibiting the import of used bicycles. The decree, dated from early 2001, likely was an effort to protect a then-existing government-owned bicycle assembly plant. In 2006, the business closed, but the decree remained in effect. We are currently working on getting the decree revoked, but in the meantime, the window of the academic year has closed and no shipment can be received until late 2008 at the earliest.      

 

 

2.    Off to a Fast Start in 2008, Volunteers Needed March 15-16 and March 29

 

Getting off to a fast start for the year, BfW volunteers loaded two containers in January for Ghana's Village Bicycle Project and a third container in early February, for Goodwill Panama. Thanks go to Craig Annear, Tom Calhoun, Nick Griffin, Geoff Milsome, Mike McMillion, Rich Robinson, Jerry Rogers, Phil Ruth, Randy Swart for their timely help on short notice (taking advantage of unseasonably warm weather in the Ghana case). The three shipments cleaned out our backlog of bikes from 2007 and brought our 2008 YTD totals-with another 50 bikes packed for Art for Humanity in Honduras and ten bikes donated to Phoenix Bikes, a youth project in Arlington VA-to more than 1,450 bikes.

 

VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED to load shipments at our Tysons storage site on Saturday morning, March 15, and Sunday afternoon, March 16, destined for COSTA RICA; and on Saturday March 29, at our Rockville King Farm site, tentatively for GHANA. Let Keith know if you can make it. Further info to come in the next newsletter.

 

3.    Spring Collection Schedule

 

2008 collections begin tomorrow, Saturday March 1, and now total close to 50 confirmed events for the spring. We encourage all listserv members to visit www.bikesfortheworld.org and check out our new collection page, which includes a Google map with Bikes for the World collections. Please take a moment and copy and paste collections of interest to friends, neighbors, colleagues, and members of other networks in which you are involved. 

 

Bikes for the World continues to expand geographically. In the Washington area, we are supporting two collections in Prince Georges County (March 1 and April 12), beginning in Greenbelt tomorrow at the Bauman-Branyan family home. On May 31, we expect to support a school system-wide collection in Calvert County MD, which could include a shipment from the County Fairgrounds in Prince Frederick. Stay tuned.

 

Finally, former steering committee member Merywen Wigley and volunteers in the Raleigh-Durham area will be holding a bike collection in Headquarters Park NC, on Saturday, March 29. Let your NC contacts know of this coming event.     

 

4.   Apologies for Late Mailing of Gift Acknowledgements

 

Due to the unexpected death over the holidays of our bookkeeper, David Boynton, we have not gotten out our 2007 gift acknowledgements. Many apologies to those who made donations during the year or in response to our end-of-year appeal, and who need these for filing their tax returns. We have been gratified by the support (and embarrassed by the calls). Some of that support will go to paying our first salaried bookkeeper, Sheila Bach, who began several weeks ago. She is almost caught up. Thank you, Sheila. Meanwhile, Bill Wooten, a long-time cyclist, Bikes for the World supporter, neighbor, recently-retired federal employee, and prospective real estate agent, has generously offered to take over weekly data entry duties (which include maintenance of the mailing list). Today we began sending out acknowledgement letters good for tax purposes.

 

 

5.    Rockville Youth Bike Project (RYBP)

 

RYBP completed its first calendar year accomplishing MOST of its goals. The workshop and barn at Rockville's King Farm Farmstead are up and operating. Director Mike McMillion and volunteers reconditioned and did safety checks for gifting 26 bikes to local students earning them through the Character Counts Program, sponsored by the City of Rockville. More than 20 students earned "student service learning" hours necessary for high school graduation in Maryland, stripping bikes for parts, packing bikes, and loading containers of bikes for overseas. More than 3,500 students in Rockville schools received improved bike and pedestrian safety education, through Mike's work with physical education instructors and volunteers in participating schools, under a contract with the City of Rockville. Two Boy Scouts earned their Eagle rank completing two rehab projects in the storage barn.  

 

Plans for 2008 are to launch an "earn-a-bike" program, a series of group rides, and other activities involving and benefiting teens. Over the next two months, help is needed to recondition bikes for a projected 60 students participating in the Character Counts successor program (called "TERRIFIC"). 

 

In the meantime, ideas are wanted.  Want to work with teens? Learn about bikes yourself? Join the RYBP! For info, call Mike McMillion at 301-461-5349 or write winstonkid at yahoo dot com