Featured Volunteer: Maika Walker


Maika Walker is the Director of Social Justice at The Academy of the Holy Cross. We chose to feature Maika (in the Nats hat) in honor of all the school faculty we work with throughout the year to set up volunteer sessions for students. We often never even meet these individuals, but we work with them regularly and the impact they have on our p...

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El Abanico: Turning Pedals and Soil


Continuing along our journey in northern Costa Rica, meet Alicia and Ricardo. They live in the community of El Abanico, located very close to the Arenal Volcano. Alicia ad Ricardo are both farmers, but they also manage the bike project for their Empresa de Credito (EC) ECs are autonomous credit companies, which aim to enhance the development of com...

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La Trinchera de Pital: Powered by Bikes


Aurora. Isabel. Helen. Meet the women of La Trinchera de Pital. All three of these women are members of the La Trinchera de Pital Empresa de Credito (EC). ECs are autonomous credit companies, which aim to enhance the development of communities and individuals. The focus of each of the ECs is to support the development of entrepreneurs in their comm...

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Featured Volunteer: Bill Schenkel


Bill Schenkel is a member of the St. Paul Knights of Columbus Council #11105 in Damascus. Bill participates in many of the KoC activities from gardening, Easter egg hunt prep, and singing in the choir. Bill has also been a regular at our annual bike colllection in the nook of Routes of 108 and 124. This crew in Damascus has been helping us improve ...

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Featured Volunteer: John Sissala


John Sissala is exactly the type of Collection Manager we love to have running an event. He has been a fixture at the Potomac United Methodist Church event since Bikes for the World formed back in 2005. Last year PUMC surpassed our 1,000 bike benchmark, but not under John's leadership.  And this is exactly what we mean about the perfect manage...

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Remembering Harrison Morson

Joe Long, Pete Adams, Charla Long, Harrison Morson

Harrison Morson was hands down one of the top supporters of Bikes for the World. His connections to Bikes for the World go deep. He was a member of the Glenwood Lions Club. Through the Lions' activity he also worked with us through Bushy Park Elementary and Glenwood Middle School. He was instrumental in getting the wheels turning at Alpha Ridge Lan...

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Featured Volunteer: David Horn


"David's Here!" It's a proclamation shouted out whenever David enters the warehouse. It's a bit like "Norm" from Cheers, except David's not the type of guy who just sits at a bar drinking beer all day. In fact, he's the exact opposite of Norm Peterson. David Horn wandered into the warehouse sometime last year and he's been hanging around ever since...

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Bikes- Access to Education


Bikes provide access to education by allowing students to stay in school rather than dropping out. As students move through the education system, there are often less options for secondary schools, forcing many students into longer commutes and possibly less areas of studies. Longer commutes translate into less energy in the classroom and less time...

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Bikes a Kickstand for Health


Meet the members of the Antsohihy Mandroso (KOPAMA) bike co-op (e-Box). This group was established in 2014 when the idea of using bikes as incentives for volunteer health workers was imagined by USAID/Transaid. At the time, Transaid introduced a program aimed at delivering preventative health care to remote regions of Madagascar, basically all of N...

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Featured Volunteer: The Slades


We LOVE our families that volunteer TOGETHER! Meet the Slades. Alix, Ben, Rose (not pictured above), Philip, and Daniel. What's that? They look familiar? Well, yeah, they should! Ben (dad) got his start with Keith Oberg back in the beginning. He was the mastermind behind all things computer, and believe us when we say, Keith needed all the hand hol...

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Energizing Local Youth


Bikes for the World celebrated World Bicycle Day a day early this year in order to give back to our community here at home. We spend so much time and energy delivering bikes across the world EVERY DAY that we decided to focus THIS day on donating bikes to kids in our backyard. This year the 2nd Annual Chocolate City Community Ride took place on Jun...

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Featured Volunteer: Pete & Ellen Berty


Pete and Ellen Berty will be celebrating their 20th Anniversary next year...with Bikes for the World! They are members of a distinct crew that have been around since the official start of BfW. And they have been there through it all with us, they have helped load containers, stuff envelopes, sell t-shirts, fill out receipts, and compact bikes in a ...

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Featured Volunteer: Greg Pearson


Greg Pearson has been popping in and out of the warehouse now for a bunch of years; no one is really sure when he got started. And just the other day we were scratching our heads (him included) trying to remember how he landed here. Turns out it started in a coffee shop and despite what you might think, it doesn't involve Taylor.  Greg recalls...

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IRL Mechanics


Mechanics from Rockville, USA to Accra, Africa. Online IRL means In Real Life, but this was more like IRT- In Real Time. Last month Executive Director Taylor Jones traveled to Ghana and Sierra Leone to visit our partners, both Village Bicycle Project. While he checked in on the programs, the mechanics, and the beneficiaries he was posting IRT to ou...

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Featured Volunteer: J Long


When the Stone Ridge Social Action crew came back this school year a few things had changed. The most noteworthy was the team expanded. Rewind the dozen years when the partnership began and we had just Ken Woodard and two students working in a cramped barn in King Farm. Over the years we slowly added a couple girls here and there. And as we expande...

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Snapshot 2022: A Year in Review

Snapshot 2022

The results are in and the numbers are up. Our Snapshot 2022 is complete and we invite you to take a look at the great work we completed last year; all of it continuing to roll into 2023. Throughout the year we continued to feel the effects of the pandemic but with every month we inched back to 'normal' operation. The biggest difference last year (...

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Featured Volunteer: Julien P.


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...

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Soul Mission

Changing Lives One BARK at a Time

Seems like an unlikely pair, but this is what happens when our bikes go to the dogs. These pups were rescued by Granja Alma (Soul Farm) in Costa Rica. As you may know, dogs are expensive and running a dog rescue program is expensive times 20. Dogs are abandoned for many reasons and could wind up at Soul Farm malnourished or injured. Simple feeding ...

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Featured Volunteer: A Tribute


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...

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Impact of One Bike

Erick and Lillan are MiBici participants

Last spring we followed the path of one bicycle from a collection point in DC to its new home in Costa Rica. This is the story of how that black Cannondale made an impact from H Street NW to El Roble de Alajuela. Its journey begins with its World Bank family who used the bike for recreation before donating it at a collection held last June. We can'...

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Class of 2022- 1k Club Inductees


Last year Bikes for the World welcomed back many of our veteran collection sites which are all led and staffed by volunteers. Many of these events were put on hold during the pandemic in an effort to keep volunteers and the public safe. The two year hiatus impacted the quality of bikes we collected more than the number since we continued to find ab...

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Featured Volunteer: Emma & Ariyeh


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...

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Featured Volunteer: Alex Can Tsarouhas


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...

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For (and from) the Girls


Strong women get things done. This is something we know well around Bikes for the World, but if there was any question, just take a look at our most recent shipment currently on its way to Madagascar. From the time the container was dropped off (by a woman!) to the time it is unloaded, sorted, inventoried, and its contents redistributed, the bikes ...

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Featured Volunteer: Thom McKinney


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...

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Local Kickstand


Donating bikes locally is not something that comes easy for Bikes for the World, at least not in bulk. If you consider the number of bikes we collect and donate a year (12,000) versus the number of full time trained mechanics we have in the warehouse (2) you might get a better idea of why. Also consider how/why bikes are donated to us in the first ...

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Featured Volunteer: Paul Murphy


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...

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On the Move with Jackie


Jackie got her start as a bike mechanic through a workshop offered at Cycloville. She originally saw the opportunity as a way to improve her family. She quickly saw the impact she could have on her community. Jackie took part in one of the first training sessions offered by Cycloville seven years ago. It was a small class of three women and on...

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Featured Volunteer: Patrick Short


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...

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Burkina Faso- Update on Richard


So much has changed since we introduced you to Richard Dayamba (seen above in red) back in 2018. He was helping unload bikes we had donated to Lumière des Enfants, also known as ALE. It was our second container we had shipped to this project in Burkina Faso. Richard was one of the first volunteers to help work on the new bike project.  Then, R...

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Q & A with Team BfW


Many of you who have come to the warehouse to volunteer or donate bikes were curious how we navigated the changing landscape over the past few years. While it's been challenging we've realized a lot of good came out of the process. The team sat down recently and explored some of your questions and we realized the pandemic helped us reorganize our e...

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Frontline of the Climate Crisis

Based on data from the World Bank, the average temperature in Burkina Faso is rising significantly.

Women and children continue to suffer the most as the earth becomes more harsh and unforgiving. Chronic drought, windstorms, and flash floods are changing the landscape of humanity. Each devastating storm is driving Burkinabe further into poverty and will eventually force them to flee not just looking for a better life, but in an effort to survive....

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Bikes in Africa's Sahel


The cycle of violence in Sahel is only one of the intense challenges the people in Burkina Faso face on a daily basis. For one of the poorest nations in the world resources are scarce and systems are overwhelmed. The conflict in Burkina Faso goes back decades but has intensified over the last seven years. The Sahel is the region in Northern Africa ...

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Featured Volunteer: Alexander Reichmann


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...

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Small Business Making Big Waves


Meet Dionne, Marilyn, and Nakeisha, just a few of the small business owners making big waves in Barbados. These three entrepreneurs recently graduated from the Personal and Economic Empowerment for Women (PEEW) program offered through our partner Pinelands Creative Workshop (PCW). Building on its overall mission, Pinelands created this intensi...

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Reinventing Gym Class


Riding bikes is a right of passage that one PE teacher wanted to make sure his students had the opportunity to experience. Dwayne Phillips (in hat above) is a physical education teacher at West Terrace Primary School in Barbados. The students he teaches range in age from 5-9 years old. Because of the pandemic, many of them had a challenging start t...

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Featured Volunteer: Tom Doyle


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...

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Outspokin' Women


Building a wheel is a skill that requires a lot of knowledge and patience. It's not for everyone, but if you can master it you could be left with more than just a functioning wheel. Building and truing a wheel can build character, confidence, respect, and trust. Remarkable qualities to build a strong foundation for a business or a reputation. ...

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Featured Volunteer: Pamela McCormick


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...

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True Motivation: Stefani's Story


Stefani de Paz takes great pride in her bike repair business. Stefani grew up watching her dad fix bicycles. She loved watching him work in their shop and had dreams of one day working along side him in the family business. In El Salvador it's unusual for a woman to do this work but it's something she was always interested  in doing. When her ...

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A Race to Progress

Photo Credit: Matt Grayson

It's known as "the richest event in one of the world's poorest countries." The Tour de Lunsar is now one of the best-known bicycle races in West Africa, but it had an uphill climb to the podium. The Tour de Lunsar is the creation of Abdul Karim Kamara, who started as a bike shop owner supported by Village Bicycle Project. He then became the in-coun...

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Featured Volunteer(s): Earl and Brian


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...

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Freedom Ride


Every kid deserves the opportunity to ride a bike. It's this simple statement that drives Smiles 4 Miles. But for kids in marginalized communities the statement, 'as easy as riding a bike' might as well be 'as hard as scaling K2'. BIPOC kids don't always have access to trails, safety equipment, or even bikes. That's where the Smiles 4 Miles Tour co...

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Featured Volunteer: Connor Monahan


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 ...

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Old Bikes Creating New Opportunities


In Rwanda an old bike transforms the lives of newborns and their moms. Bikes for the World's newest partner, Learn Work and Develop (LWD) uses donated bicycles to support the young people in Rwanda by providing economic, medical and psychosocial support to teens at risk of getting pregnant, are currently pregnant, or recently became ...

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Featured Volunteer: Kevin Dolan


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 ...

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Featured Volunteer: Noah Edlavitch


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...

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Saying Goodbye to a Giant


In 2021 we said goodbye to an old trustworthy friend who has been with through so many fairs, events, and training sessions we completely lost count.This blue MTX Giant mountain bike was donated to us when the previous owner outgrew the frame. He went on to college and graduated and we still had the bike in our warehouse! This 'display' bike travel...

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Featured Volunteer:The Brulands


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...

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Full Circle: Honey Jane Finds Her Way


Honey Jane came to Manila to find a better life, but no one envisioned the path that would ultimately take her back to exactly where she started. We introduced you to Honey Jane back in 2017 when she entered our Bikes for Education program in the Philippines. Then, she was a student at Regional School for the Arts Angono (RLSAA) in M...

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Aruna's Bike- From Ebola to Coronavirus


Aruna is a Community Health Nurse who uses his bike to deliver covid vaccines to communities surrounding the hospital where he works. He recently received his bike through our partner Village Bicycle Project, but he realized the power of a bicycle when he became a nurse seven years ago. Aruna graduated from nursing school in 2014 and star...

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Mary's Bike- Stories from Sierra Leone


Early last year, Mary graduated from nursing school, transferred to Lunsar, and immediately got a job at the hospital. Then the pandemic hit. She found herself in the middle of a health crisis in a position to make a life saving impact on her community. But her job also put her in a dangerous situation. Her new commute required that she use public ...

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Featured Volunteer(s): Gary & Kay Boughan


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...

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Focus on Healthcare Workers- Sierra Leone


The demand for bicycles among healthcare workers continues to grow especially in the middle of the current pandemic. Our partners from the Philippines to Madagascar to Sierra Leone are working to ensure front line workers in the medical field have the bikes they need to get to work and complete home visits. This team of doctors and nurses...

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Working Together to Form a Stronger Hub


Bikes for the World recently had the opportunity to donate bikes to Afghan refugees through the Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC). The bikes will help provide transportation to grocery stores, doctors appointments or job interviews.  ECDC is working to ease the resettlement of recent Afghan refugees who are making the transit...

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  1080 Hits

Featured Volunteer: Carol Parker


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...

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Paul Harris Fellow Award


Last month the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek honored Bikes for the World leaders Keith Oberg, Taylor Jones, and Yvette Hess as Paul Harris Fellows, in recognition of their humanitarian leadership and service in "doing good in the world". The Paul Harris Fellow Award is named for the founder of Rotary International. A $1,000 contribution to the The R...

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Featured Volunteer: Leslie Cook


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...

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  924 Hits

Ride Share: Jazmín Quirós's Story


When the Quirós family bought a bicycle from their local co-op life immediately got easier. But the family of four quickly outgrew owning just one bike. The first bike Doña Jazmín (seen above) purchased was mostly used by her husband to get to work. So for most of the day she couldn't use the bike to run errands. With the extra ...

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Rolling Out Product: Virginia's Story


Virginia has a successful business with her mother that allowed her to purchase this awesome Specialized Rockhopper. Doña Irma (mom) and Virginia live next to Don Álvaro's co-op but they are not members. When they heard about the shipment of bikes coming to the community they decided to look into getting one to help grow their b...

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Tribute: Mike McMillion


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...

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Cutting a New Path: Álvaro's Story


When an injury forced Don Álvaro to stop working, he wasn't sure how he could feed his family. He had always relied on farming for both. But when a shipment of bicycles arrived in his community he seized the opportunity to shift gears and turn his life around. Álvaro comes from a long line of farmers and for as long as he can remember he has w...

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Creating a Hub to Support Small Business


Last year during the pandemic the hashtag #AloneTogether was trending. Quarantining at home made us take a look at what it meant to come together to survive alone; we also realized we aren't alone. The same can be said for these small independent entrepreneurs in Costa Rica. Each one of them is succeeding in their own small business, but ...

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  1054 Hits

Riding New Chapters


The moment parents let go and watch their child ride away on two wheels for the first time, they realize the power of a bicycle. We often associate a bike with independence and our newest beneficiaries fully appreciate the importance of freedom and independence.  We found Kahvil, Tariq, and Kevin through Free...

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Featured Volunteer: Kate Kidwell


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 ...

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  1240 Hits

Pedal Peddler


When we met Jeremy she didn't even know how to ride a bike, and now she is using it to help support her family! Like so many of us around the world, the pandemic upended life in her household but Jeremy used the same determination that got her on a bike several years ago to help shift her direction. As her mentor, Bikes for the Philippines pivoted ...

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Staying Connected


When Leila and Romeo received bikes from our partner Bikes for the Philippines they didn't realize they were becoming part of a family. Both beneficiaries encountered hardships over the past year and when Bikes for the Philippines learned of their struggles, they didn't hesitate to act. In fact, the green Kona and red Giant seen above are not ...

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Providing Rides During a Pandemic


During the pandemic, transportation to and from work became an even greater challenge not only to rural communities in the Philippines, but truly everywhere, even in metro Manila. For nurses, janitors, security guards, farmers, and those in the food service industry, working from home was not an option. And when public transportation shut down, bus...

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Featured Volunteer: Lil(l)y


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...

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Transforming Scrap into Skill


Making an old bike work is all about how you frame it. And at CESTA they really now how to re-frame it. If you look closely at the bike above (and know anything about bikes) you'll quickly see that this is a handmade 'hybrid'. The front looks more like a child's BMX style bike, while the back appears to be an adult mountain bike. Extensive racks we...

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  1455 Hits

Featured Volunteer: Michael Miehl


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...

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  1515 Hits

Supporting Young Mothers


For many of our beneficiary projects around the world, bikes serve as the vehicle that drives their mission, literally and figuratively. This is very much the case for Learn Work Develop (LWD) in Rwanda, our newest recipient partner. LWD's main focus is to guide and support teen girls who are not fully supported by their families. The bike com...

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  1498 Hits

Learn Work Develop: New Project in Rwanda


Bikes for the World has added a new partner! Learn Work Develop is an NGO in Rwanda and our second supported project in this country. But Learn Work Develop itself is not NEW, even the bike project has been around for a few years. But after a pandemic sized year of delays, we are now donating bikes to this life changing organization. In fact o...

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  1447 Hits

Featured Volunteer: Ted Haynie


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...

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  1662 Hits

Hindsight 2020


They say that hindsight is 2020. But a cyclist knows in order to keep your balance you need to keep your eyes on where you are going. And when we took a look back over the past year we realized that practice is exactly what kept us rolling through a challenging year of uncertainty.  It should have been a year of celebration for Bikes...

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  1321 Hits

Featured Volunteer: Jeff Colaianni


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...

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  1242 Hits

McLean School Leads the Way


We're back. Or rather YOU are! This month we welcomed our first (very small) service group back to the warehouse since the pandemic started. Despite the protocols and regulations required by staff and board members, these pioneers from McLean School put their heads down and their wrenches up to help us get bikes ready for our ne...

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  1595 Hits

Featured Volunteer: David Hickson


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...

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  1339 Hits

Covid Complicates Deliveries


This container of bikes from October 2020 arrived in Madagascar in February slightly behind schedule. The donated bikes, in part from a collection at McLean School, were shipped last fall in hopes of arriving before the Christmas holiday. They arrived for Valentine's Day instead. The demand for bikes has only grown over the two month...

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Localized and Mobilized


When the global pandemic stopped human life in its tracks last year, wildlife kept moving on. And this group of conservation rangers in Rwanda quickly adapted to meet life where it led them and hurdle roadblocks left in the way. They had several critical tools at their disposal: first, they were established with a solid community model wh...

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  1315 Hits

Featured Volunteer: Charley Young


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...

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Featured Volunteer: Frank Smith


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...

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Harnessing Collective Power


This past year's health and economic crisis continues to unfold even as 2020 draws to a close. The recently signed COVID-19 relief package offers assistance to many Americans who were blindsided by closures and reduced capacities that greatly impacted their ability to provide basic needs to their families. When the pandemic began last spring, ...

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Featured Volunteer: Richard Silva


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 ...

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Recycled Hope


This week Bikes for the World donated our 160,000th bike. Looking back at our last leg of the journey, we couldn't have done it without the commitment from our long term recycling partners. Because our source of donated bikes is so diverse we were able to keep our program rolling along at a steady pace...just not at the volume we've ...

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Featured Volunteer: Densroy Reid


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 ...

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Featured Volunteer: Dhruv Sundararaman


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...

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Field To Fork


When COVID-19 quarantines shut down businesses and crowded public spaces, rural communities around the world where food security already teeters on the edge were forced beyond the brink. Empty markets and closed ports shut down access to food in an instant. In Africa subsistence farming provides food for many families, but there is n...

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Final Mile

Healthcare workers in Sierra Leone use bicycles to treat and prevent malaria

As the world rushes to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, we are looking forward to saving lives and resetting life to normal. Meanwhile, many African nations are also glancing back at past successes and challenges when faced with other diseases and outbreaks, hoping to learn and respond better and faster to this pandemic.  So far in terms o...

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  1545 Hits

Featured Volunteer: The Crawfords


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...

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  1698 Hits

Back to Basics


Students around the world have been heading back to school over the past few weeks unsure what their school year will actually look like. Back in March, when Covid-19 spread across the globe at an alarming rate, classrooms closed and kids found themselves parked in front of laptops and tablets on couches and kitchen tables trying to stay on to...

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Shedding Light on the Pandemic Response


The global pandemic is bringing to light long-term deficiencies in smaller countries struggling to control coronavirus. Energy resources, for example, are essential to help countries like Sierra Leone respond and recover from Covid-19. Despite bringing mini power grids to health facilities several years ago, many are still operating ...

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Featured Volunteer: Bob Knoll


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...

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  1654 Hits

Featured Volunteer: Ron LaCoss


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...

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Featured Volunteer: Ron Boyd


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 ...

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Cyclists Ride Around Pandemic Obstacles


When COVID-19 brought a medical crisis to the Philippines, like most countries, they answered with quarantines. Shutting down businesses and public transportation left essential workers literally stranded. Front liners and health professionals were still expected to report to work but many didn't have the means to do so without a lengthy, time...

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Lockdown has Philippines Shifting Gears


Edward and Lovina work at Philippine General Hospital and while many people were hailing them as heroes labeling them essential, they were struggling just to get to work. Essential workers covers a lot of ground. They are doctors, nurses, security guards, cooks, grocers, food delivery drivers and janitors. Many live miles from w...

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Providing Essential Transportation


Essential workers in DC got a lift from Bikes for the World last month through a local initiative to bring safe alternative modes of transit to the city amid the coronavirus pandemic. The group BikeMatch DC is pairing up donated bikes with essential workers who are facing limited public transportation options or may not feel comfortable r...

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Who's Behind the Mask


Today amid health concerns, we are all binding together and finding ourselves in one big sewing circle. Typically a sewing circle includes a group of people working together to create either individual pieces or one big project. Now, many of us are pulling out old sewing machines, dusting off cutting wheels and mats, and trying to remembe...

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Featured Volunteer: Amy Loar


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...

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  2039 Hits