Forty volunteers turned out, and seventy bikes were donated, at our January 19, 2009 bike collection at our new storage site near the Twinbrook Metro station in Rockville MD. Volunteers processed (prepped) another 100 bicycles, cut wood in preparation for subsequent shipments, and organized the warehouse.  

This collection and service day were in honor of Martin Luther King Day and part of the national service day promoted by the Presidential Inauguraiton Committee.  Volunteers prepped bikes for shipping and provided donors with a receipt good for tax purposes.  Volunteers removed the pedals (and attached them to the frame with a cable tie), lowered seats (and re-tightened bolts), turned and rotated handlebara, and flopped children's bikess' handlebars down, and removed any basket or training wheels.

The day's work went a long ways towards preparing for our first shipment of the year, most likely to the Village Bicycle Project in Ghana (www.pcei.org/vbp) or Goodwill Industries of Panama (www.goodwillpanama.org ). 

These efforts build on 2008's record collections and shipments totalling 10,300 bicycles, donated to programs in seven overseas countries and the United States.  This 2008 total easily surpassed the previous year's mark of 7,922 bikes, expanding the employment impact of our grasroots program, and confirming Bikes for the World as the country's largest program of this type, on an annual basis, for the second year in a row.  Thank you for your support!!

Among the most recent beneficiaries are long-time partners Fundación Integral Campesina (FINCA Costa Rica) and the Pinelands Creative Workshop (Barbados).

In addition, we have taken on a new partner, the Aschiana Foundation, a 20-year-old program serving street children in Kabul, Afghanistan. Bikes for the World is collaborating with the Lamia Afghan Foundation, a newly-formed U.S. non-profit which collects and donates clothing and other useful household goods for low-income people in war-torn Afghanistan, and the U.S. Air Force, which is transporting the bikes.  Lamia Afghan picked up 40 mid-size children's bikes earlier this month, and we anticipate additional shipments in the New Year.

Many thanks to all locally who have participated in collections and load-outs over then last month, especially Craig Annear, Hellen Gelband, Carol Goodloe, Nick Griffin, Jimmy Hall, Jerry Rogers, Phil Ruth, Mark Sajbel. Further afield, special thanks and congratulations to Elizabeth Gilmour, a senior at Jamestown High School in Williamsburg VA, and Kristin Eckart and Keith Vest at PAVE Creative Group in Winston-Salem NC, who contributed many hours toward successful collections in their communities. Elizabeth's "Equalize Our Earth Club" netted 130 bicycles on a rainy Saturday.