Empowerment, Independence, Confidence Strength
Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that's diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. At Bikes for the World women's equality is not something that needs to be imagined it is a force to be harnessed.
Last month we celebrated Women's History Month and International Women's Day by kicking the guys to the curb and letting the women run the show. And of course, who better to lead that challenge than the women of Stone Ridge's Social Action program.
We finished out the month by loading a container for our partner in Rwanda, Learn, Work, Develop. One of the more recent additions to this project is the Bike for the Future Program. This effort directly utilizes the bikes we donate to uplift women in the program. A primary object is to raise awareness within society and challenge gender stereotypes, empowering girls to realize their full potential.
So there was no better program than this to unleash our girl power to propel this shipment forward.
We started with some young girl scouts from Troop 34108 who spent a recent Saturday morning with us compacting bikes that were loaded into this container for Rwanda.
Stone Ridge did what Stone Ridge does...attacked our parts bikes pile and rescued as many usable parts as possible for the mechanics in the Bike for the Future Program. These were also included in the container.
Because of all of those parts included in this shipment (roughly three times as many as usual), we had a slow start to the first day of loading, which Stone Ridge assisted with. But we also planned our week perfectly since we had so many groups with us during this week so we had this container for two days. Girl Scout Troop 34108, Landon School, McLean School, Stone Ridge, and Washington International School (twice) all in one week!
When WIS arrived the next day they were eager to work on the loading. And when we invited the girls to hop up on the third level, that was it. They did all the heavy lifting and visualized the third row Tetris of placing bikes under handlebars and through kickstands and bottle cages, nestling them to the top of the container. They even finished out the last row where they are forced to work even as we start to close the doors on the shipment.
This container left our warehouse on Monday March 25 and arrived in the port of Baltimore awaiting its moment to be loaded onto a shipping container. The next day a container leaving the port lost power and struck the Key Bridge causing it to collapse. A construction crew on the bridge lost their lives, but the dispatch crew managed to save countless others by closing the bridge and stopping traffic just before the collapse. The shipping channel remains blocked by the wreckage and our container will continue its journey to another port to make its way to Rwanda.
We have several other shipments scheduled this month which will likely need to be taken by truck to another location before getting loaded onto a ship. This will involve more time and money, but we are fortunate to have a solution around the tragedy in Baltimore.
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