Featured Volunteer: Adela Wynn

​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. 

Adela joined us technically back in 2005, but Founder Keith Oberg remembers working with her even before we became Bikes for the World officially. She brought our program to Potomac School where she was a teacher. Even though she encountered a slight challenge with scheduling an event on campus on a weekend, she pushed to find an alternative. She worked with Trinity United Methodist Church just down the street as an auxiliary collection location, which was just fine with us with that prime location on Dolley Madison Blvd.  

Providing a service learning opportunity to the students was only half her motivation. She is interested in not only cleaning up our environment but putting to use a valuable discarded tool- THE BIKE. And so began the relationship. For over a decade Adela and crew collected more than 500 bikes for the program. And even after the school stopped holding their annual collection, Adela kept going. Bikes found in the neighborhood here and there would often wind up at one of our bike shop partners year after year, courtesy Ms. Wynn. 

While we were supporting collections with Potomac School it really couldn't have been any easier with our trailers positioned in Tysons Corner, under what is now the Silver Line. Nevertheless, we never had the pleasure of working with the Potomac School in one of our warehouses....until now. Adela rekindled the relationship this summer by bringing two crews from the Counselor Apprentice Camp. They were also amazing! The first crew helped us load a container for El Salvador and the second prepped bikes for the Madagascar shipment. 

It was super great to see Adela again and work with the students from Potomac School. It was a tricky couple months bouncing back and forth between the Potomac School of McLean and the Mclean School of Potomac, but we managed to keep them straight...sadly, neither school is interested in swapping names!