Julien Payen led off our 2023 collection season hosting an event at his elementary school, St. Martin of Tours in Gaithersburg. Julien graduated from elementary school quite a few years ago and was working on his Eagle project with his boy scout troop #926. Julien chose Bikes for the World as his project beneficiary because of the volunteer work he...
We ended 2022 on a sad note, as we said goodbye to three huge champions of the cycling community, the environment, and the Bikes for the World family- Jack Koczela, Ann Jackson, and Art Wittig. Ann Jackson has a deep connection to Bikes for the World and our founder Keith Oberg, their families often exploring vacations together by bike. Ann created...
This month our featured volunteer piece highlights two esteemed teens on our team. Meet Emma Colavito seen above with her dad and Ariyeh Schmelzer (not pictured)- two of our top fundraisers of 2022. Between them they raised nearly $3,000 for Bikes for the World while working on personal projects involving bikes and us! Emma approached us around Tha...
Alex Can Tsarouhas became a bit of FIX-ture around the warehouse during 2022. He started coming to Bikes for the World to earn service hours (SSL) for school and racked up quite a few of the with us over the past year. He clearly knew a thing or two about bikes when he came, but now he knows even more! Alex Can participated in our Thursday ni...
Thom McKinney is one of those hard working volunteers you may never have seen even if you hang out in the Bikes for the World warehouse every day. In fact, he's only been to the warehouse once. BUT he logs volunteer hours almost every single week. Thom volunteers at the I-66 waste transfer station in Fairfax, for Bikes for the World of course...
These two guys go way back. Y'all know our founder, Keith Oberg (right) and on the left is Paul Murphy, veteran collection manager for Herndon Friends Meeting. Keith and Paul met over 25 years ago while repairing a summer camp impacted by the Standardsville flood of '95. They've watched their kids grow up, go to college, and start having kids of th...
Patrick Short, with Boy Scout troop 1916, completed his Eagle Project with Bikes for the World last month collecting bikes that were donated to Burkina Faso, Africa. We were counting on this event to bring us enough bikes to fill a container we had scheduled just 12 days after we loaded a container for Barbados. Since the pandemic upended the shipp...
Alex Reichmann was introduced to Bikes for the World at school during CESJDS's Families In Action community service day. As it turns out our warehouse is right across the street from the school and since that initial partnership, we've had many JDS students come join us after school for service hours. We have even hosted CESJDS in the warehous...
What I Did On My Summer Vacation, By Tom Doyle. We would ask Tom to submit this essay, but as a teacher we know his summer time is precious. It's true what they say, teachers work 10 months a year and then have the summer 'off', but do they really? Some teachers have summer jobs just to make ends meet. Some are busy scheduling things that can...
Don't let the photo fool you, Pamela is not buried in bikes; she's in full control. Pamela McCormick is part of the Cumberland Area Bikes for the World...yes there is such a thing! To say it's just an annual collection is an incredible understatement; the Cumberland Area BfW is powered by the Western Maryland Wheelmen, an active, dedicated crew. It...
Before the pandemic hit, Linda Hansen came to us and said, I don't think we can continue the bike collection at St. Mary of Sorrows in Fairfax. Linda had been the manager of this event for years before handing it off to another volunteer to manage. And another and another. And even though collections pretty much run themselves- you say, do you have...
Connor is a junior at Bethesda Chevy Chase (B-CC) who reached out to us during the height of the pandemic. He had been tinkering with bikes in the garage when he came across Bikes for the World and loved what we did. It was spring 2021, things were starting to get back to normal, but not really. Still Connor was ready to bust out of the garage. He ...
Kevin Dolan may not be a face you recognize around the Bikes for the World warehouse but he has been an active champion of our cause for decades. Kevin has been a fixture at Race Pace Bicycles since the 90s and last week as those stores converted to Trek Bicycle shops we said goodbye to Kevin as we picked up our final load at the Owings Mills ...
One of our biggest fundraisers, loudest champions and most diverse volunteers is also currently one of our youngest. Noah Edlavitch came to us at the end of last year right when we were crunching to donate our last bikes of 2021. His work with us in our busy warehouse made our final containers to partners in Rwanda and Madagascar possible. Tho...
This month we are bringing you another dynamite duet, the Brulands. Jeff and Tina have been working with Bikes for the World since 2014. They used to own a car shop (Jeff just recently retired) so they are quite familiar with tools and grease, making them a natural fit in our warehouse. And whenever we find ourselves jammed up in the warehouse...
Kay and Gary Boughan are the dynamic duo behind the Knights of Columbus 11105/St Paul's Catholic Community annual bike drive. They have been a fixture on the Bikes for the World collection schedule forever. In fact if you've passed by the triangle formed by route 108 and route 124 in Damascus the last Saturday of October, you've likely seen them at...
Carol Parker: cyclist, supporter, wrencher, promoter, recruiter, and envelope stuffer....need we say more? Yep, now that I see the photos side by side this is absolutely Peter and Carol. This month's featured volunteer is Carol Parker, but it's hard to talk about her (and bikes) without at least mentioning her husband Peter Harnik. One has to wonde...
It was just last year when Les approached us after reading about a friend of his who was a featured volunteer in 2020. Les had recently retired from NPR and loved bikes, so he looked for a volunteer gig where he might have the opportunity to improve his repair skills. When he heard that Walter (Mulbry) had also retired and was spending time in...
This month we want to take a moment to honor a legend. Mike McMillion worked for Bikes for the World (2007-2011) and if anyone ever visited King Farm during that time you probably know Mike. Mike ran the Rockville Youth Bike Project which really cemented our place in the bike community in Montgomery County. Mike ran the TERRIFIC bik...
Kate Kidwell has been a familiar name around Bikes for the World headquarters for more than a decade now, but only a name without a face. Until social media! Kate has been involved with the Cumberland area bike collection since she moved to the area in the early 2000s, but given the 130 plus miles between us, we only saw her name on ...
Our latest shipment to the Philippines was stacked with Lily petals, or rather pedals. Flanked might be a better term. Lily (one L, on the left) recruited a team to help prep the bikes we loaded into the container. And Lilly (two Ls, on the right) rolled, lifted, and crammed them into the container. Both come to us by way of great stories...
Make some noise for Michael Miehl! Mike has been managing our bike collection at Sherwood High School almost since the last Brood X cicada emergence. He's interested in the little buggers not just because he's a science teacher but, admit it, it's quite a show. But really, what's the buzz about bikes and Sherwood? It's true, we've b...
Ted Haynie has been around Bikes for the World since the beginning and he's done a little bit of everything from collecting bikes to driving trucks and even guiding the organization. After serving on our board, Ted's been MIA with BfW for the last couple years, only poking his head into the warehouse to deliver a stray bike or sewing...
In reality volunteer Jeff Colaianni has only been with Bikes for the World for a little over a year. No, really, we've checked multiple times. It only feels like much longer because it was a covid year. And everything seems much longer during a pandemic. It goes without saying, Jeff's contribution to Bikes for the World couldn't have been...
David Hickson is another one of those Bikes for the World supporters who goes way back. Like double digits. David manages the collection at his school, Sandy Spring Friends School (SSFS). Over the years the school has contributed many bikes to the program and offered service hours to students. They are not an annual collection site, instead sk...
Charley Young is a high school senior at St. Andrews in Potomac. Let that sink in a second. Class of 2021. Homecoming, prom, college visits, robotic competitions, athletic scholarships, your own parking space at school. Going out for burgers, hanging with friends at the mall, watching the newest blockbuster in a theater, your first t...
Frank Smith is one of our faithful, weekly volunteers who helped keep us rolling through the pandemic. Frank came to us shortly after we moved into our Rockville warehouse and he's been spending nearly every week with us since! He is part of the crew who strips usable parts from our scrap bike pile which just seems to keep growing. Not to make it a...
Bikes for the World works with hundreds of volunteers annually, many of them offsite that we never get to meet or thank. Richard Silva is one of them. Richard is a vehicle maintenance coordinator with Fairfax County. He's also a welder. And an artist. The bike sculpture he's leaning against in the picture above is one of his works of art (our ...
Mr. Densroy Reid (left), D. Reid, or just simply Reid has been hard at work for Bikes for the World for years now, although he may not look very familiar to anyone hanging around our warehouse. Don't let all the bikes behind him fool you, this isn't actually OUR warehouse. Mr. Reid works at Preferred Business in Elmsford NY and these are just ...
Dhruv Sundararaman (right) is one of three scouts this fall who helped launch our collection season under unusual circumstances and protocols. Arnav, on the left, was another working on his Eagle project and also from Troop 1983. Both scouts contacted us last year to set up bike collections as their Eagle projects and both were scheduled this sprin...
Meet The Crawfords: Tom, Carrie, Scott, and Paul, or Paul, Carrie, Tom and Scott if you are following along in the photo. The Crawfords have been fixtures at the Otterbein United Methodist Church collection in Hagerstown since 2005. We've actually watched the boys grow and mature into quite the bike mechanics. Their willingness to le...
Bob Knoll is one of the most sought after and valued Bikes for the World volunteer varieties. Don't get us wrong, ALL of our volunteers are super important and highly regarded in our warehouse, but Bob has a truck and trailer and he knows how to use it to move bikes! Bob actually came to know us through a bike collection held at Temple S...
Who's that masked fella? Oh, just your run of the mill Bikes for the World Superhero- Ron LaCoss. We are super excited to announce we welcomed back select volunteers this week, starting with our elite mechanics who work the day shift (we actually did a trial run with our Thursday night regulars last month). Ron jumped at the opportunity to get back...
Ron Boyd is a Thursday night regular. Sometimes it's just him alone in there prepping bikes for the next big shipment, but we've come to rely on him quite a bit to keep that room under control. Knocking those bikes back every week not only helps us fill our containers for our partners around the world but it also helps Jonathan and Glenn have ...
So this is Amy and Phil Loar...two long time supporters of Bikes for the World. We've already highlighted Phil before and we truly can't say enough about this guy, but this time our focus is on his wife Amy who is an avid quilter. And as you might guess, has her own sewing (or quilting) circles. She helped us close the circle on a local mask m...
Heidi, Abby, and Walt. This month we are giving a shout out to The Green Team. This family of bike mechanics is far from green, unless you count those old Raleighs (center photo) they built up for the DC Tweed ride. This crew certainly knows their way around bikes and our bike stands and we love seeing them in any combination during our r...
Judy Mitchell has been working with Bikes for the World longer than any of the current employees, and more recently she has really upped her game. She is now counted among our elite team of retirees who can frequently be found tinkering around the warehouse on any given day. Judy started volunteering with us alongside her husband, Jim Mit...
Once upon a time we were like the little engine organization that could- chugging along with a passionate conductor named Keith who convinced everyone in his wake to jump on board. Bikes for the World Founder Keith Oberg kept us on the rails and brought on volunteers with a shared vision who not only helped us pick up steam...
Walter Mulbry has never owned a new bicycle, or so the tale is told. We've seen him tinker with Treks, Schwinns, and the latest e-bike to roll across our threshold, and we believe him. He may have never owned a new bike, but he's had his share of bikes in the family. Around our warehouse he's absolutely electric! No joke, he drives an ele...
Dennis Kiernan is the owner and manager of Preferred Business in Elmsford New York. He is also operating the official/unofficial NY arm of Bikes for the World. There's really no other way to describe it. We can, however, also give due credit to his entire team working at Preferred Business for lending a hand in the effort. Dennis approached B...
​It's almost unfair of us to call out Jeff Bruland as our featured volunteer of the month because as you can see in the photo, he is more than just a man. That's Jeff there in the almost middle standing with his wife Tina surrounded by the United Methodist Men from Montgomery UM Church in Damascus. This is Jeff's second crew to visi...
​Zoltan Nagy has been on a few rides with us over the years, and I guess you could say he's redefining what cyclists call a Century. This year Zoltan spearheaded the effort with the Montgomery/Rocky Hill Rotary out of New Jersey where he relocated several years ago. He actually started collecting bikes with the Germantown/Gaithersburg Jaycees ...
Bill Regan has been a regular Thursday fixture around the warehouse for the past year. He came to us at the end of last year and asked how he could get involved. He knew his way around a tool bench and brought with him mechanical experience. This guy's an all around handy-man working on his own bikes, cars, and doing home projects around the house....
​Adela Wynn (tucked in the back in blue) is one of the those volunteers who has been around with us since the beginning although less active recently than in the past. But we wanted to take this opportunity to remind you once you are a member of the Bikes for the World family, you are ALWAYS a member of the Bikes for the World family. Ad...
Valerie Van Hollen is the creative muscle behind the pen motivating Cumberland area donors to let go of their old bikes. Here she is accepting our coveted 1k award given to groups who have collected over 1,000 bikes for our organization (this was a few years ago). Don't count now, but her crew is set to break 2,000 by next year! Her...
Logan Hay set a Bikes for the World Eagle Project record last month when he collected 255 bikes for our program. He also raised over $1,000. So yeah, he's the featured volunteer of the month. How'd he do it? Well, we are still scratching our heads on that one. When Logan came to us last winter he had his sights set on completing his...
Gordon Johnson coasted into our coveted 1k Club as of last year, but we still haven't gotten around to properly inducting him yet! And depending on whether you use 'new' math or 'old' numbers this honor is well overdue. First, let's look at the 'new math'. Gordon has been a collection manager at Trinity United Methodist Church i...
This is Nate. A few months ago we received an email from Nate's mom Sarah. This is not out of the ordinary; we are contacted by many moms looking for volunteer hours for sons and daughters. In this case however, the email came from Sarah's account, which Nate was using to contact us directly. Nate took the initiative to reach out to us because he w...
Harry Betz came to us by way of a collection held north of Philadelphia in Newtown, Pennsylvania. That collection occurred at Pennswood Village and was managed by Harry's long time customer George Kurz. George is also a long time supporter of Bikes for the World and he was in Harry's shop, Newtown Bikes, and mentioned the collection. Harry liked th...
​As you can see Jeff doesn't just volunteer around bikes, he also rides them! That's sort of how we initially connected. Jeff was just dropping off a bike at a collection event over a decade ago, and here he is still hanging around! Jeff Saxe fell in love with the Bikes for the World mission and he saw a valuable resource in his own back yard going...
Sister ACTS is a group of devoted women out of Martinsburg West Virginia who deserve our highest praise. One of the group's leaders, Sue Ann Palmer, contacted Bikes for the World a little over a year ago to invite us to speak to the group. Outreach Coordinator Yvette Hess made the trip up to Otterbein United Methodist Church in Martinsburg, where t...
​Meet Woody Woodrich, tired and true volunteer throughout the years. Woody became invaluable to us once we moved into our warehouses in Pentagon City. Woody helped us out by grabbing items left at bike shops over on the Hill which saved us the hassle of driving into the city. More importantly he kept us awash in tubes and tires. Back then we were a...
Our own Keith Oberg was recognized last month by Bethesda Magazine and Bethesda Green for his tire-FULL work creating, growing, and maintaining Bikes for the World for over a decade. We of course knew Keith created something special so it's very satisfying to see someone else noticing too. On October 17, Keith accepted the Individual Leadership Awa...
Noah and Sam first came to our warehouse last winter to get a few community service hours with their families. They are now our youngest regular volunteers. They've work their hours in among basketball games, summer camps, and homework...these guys are always moving! They didn't just happen upon Bikes for the World nor were they planning to check o...
Glenn joined the Bikes for the World team several years ago while we were still operating out of Arlington VA. No one may have been more excited to see us move back across the river to Rockville than Glenn. Back then we saw him maybe once a week, now it's once or twice a day! Glenn is a huge help to us given his bike knowledge and mechanics skills....
The Glenwood Lions Club started working with Bikes for the World back in 2005. Back then it was just an average collection at the Bushy Park Elementary School. In just a couple years it was moved to the middle school and became a project of the school's LEO Club, which engages youth in community service projects. Today through the combined efforts ...
This month in lieu of our Featured Volunteer piece we are reserving this honored corner to say thank you to outgoing Operations Manager Bob Leftwich. Bob joined the Bikes for the World team in the summer of 2016 and guided our operation through two pivotal years. He jumped right into our fall season that year and before even getting grease on his b...
The Records Family has been wrenching bikes in Cumberland for longer than some of the brothers had hands strong enough to hold a pedal wrench. Mike and Sue (the parents) and their seven kids have been involved with the Cumberland Rotary/Western Maryland Wheelmen's collective Bikes for the World bike drive stretching back over many years. ...
What a guy! Shane Sellers has been a fixture, no make that an anchor, at the annual Rotary Club of Carroll Creek (RCCC) bike collection in Frederick for over a decade. Shane goes back through the history of this collection longer than most Rotarians have been involved with the project. Shane is an art professor at Frederick Community College ...
Mike Johnston is as much a fixture of the annual Otterbein United Methodist Church as Collection Manager Cindy Brown. Really, it's more accurate to call them co-managers. Cindy handles all the emails and communications with BfW, and Mike is out there collecting bikes all year long. It's this dynamic duo that really gets the wheel turning on this ef...
Alex Obriecht is the owner of Race Pace Bicycles which just opened its seventh store this past year. All locations serve as drop off points for Bikes for the World.Actually Keith and Alex have been working together even longer than we've been known as Bikes for the World. Part of the success of our relationship extends well beyond Alex. In each sto...
Joe Bolandrina has three container loadings under his belt, all at different locations. He's helped manage and mentor two or three bike collections for us. He's even done shop pick ups and individual pick ups. Impressive but not overly unusual you say? Did we mention he lives more than 400 miles away?? No lie. This guy is north, north, north of us ...
This guy. What would we do without Ron Watts? Just look at him picking up and moving not one, not two, but three bikes...at a time! It would be understating Ron's worth to focus on him moving bikes, but quite a bit of his time has been spent on just that, moving bikes for Bikes for the World's South Carolina spin off. Not just some bikes, but hundr...
Bikes for the World is blessed with an amazing crew of volunteers who champion our mission at school, work, home...sometimes to strangers they meet on Metro. The reason we are able to affect the great number of lives we do around the world is because of our huge volunteer network. Many of our volunteers have been with us for years, even decades. So...
"I first met Linda Hansen maybe seven years ago when I first started working with Bikes for the World. That was four offices and six warehouses ago. I guess maybe we've both been around for a while," remembers Outreach Coordinator Yvette Hess. BUT, Linda predates BfW staff by just as many years. In fact she predates Bikes for the World itself! Lind...
These kids above are some of our Filipino beneficiaries from Batangas Talahib Pandayan National High School and they are personally saying thank you to our Featured Volunteer of the month Lucas Kramer. So who the heck is Lucas and what makes him so special? I actually know Lucas's parents from way back, but I only just met Lucas at the Altern...
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