Featured Volunteer: Jen Manguera

Girl Scout troops UNITE! Seriously, some sort of Scout Signal must have been released after troop 1165's last visit. Ever since then we've been struggling to get all the interested troops scheduled!

Who is troop 1165? Well, Jen Manguera is the troop leader and she's delivered many scouts from her troop to our warehouse to help us get bikes ready for shipments. Jen first contacted before the pandemic hit. And her troop was one of the last group events we had in the warehouse in February 2020.

She's been scheduling volunteers sessions for her scouts ever since. BUT after the last visit in October Jen posted about it on some type of girl scout list serve...we don't know what she said, but our phone started ringing off the hook...or maybe our inbox filled up with requests, or something.  

We had a page full of troops requesting dates to come volunteer at the end of 2024. Since that session with 1165 in October of last year we've had five more girl scout troops come through after reading that recommendation from Jen. That's just how easy it is to make a HUGE impact with Bikes for the World...the power of sharing posts.

The last 'troop' that volunteered was actually a collection of scouts from several troops...again, the power of sharing posts...we were in a jam and needed some volunteers quick, and the girl scouts responded. Within 24 hours they recruited volunteers and showed up to help us get bikes ready for the next shipment. And because we had a warehouse full of bikes they even worked under cramped conditions!

That crew was working toward their Silver Trefoil Award, which includes service hours specific to helping internationally. And we fit the bill! Jen has been directly responsible for getting both of our shipments out this year and she doesn't even know it! We are still busy scheduling troops to come volunteer thanks to Jen's post. And it's probably about time to schedule her next visit too.