Featured Volunteer: Green Lizard Cycling

This is definitely a shout out to Herndon Friends Meeting crew who hosted their 15th bike collection with Bikes for the World this past month. They also surpassed 1,000 bikes donated officially placing them in our elite 1k Club! To be honest, the relationship between Paul Murphy, who leads this charge, and our founder Keith Oberg goes back further than 2005 (so this is just when we started keeping track of numbers in 2005).

But actually our Featured Volunteer this month is a big supporter of this collection and has been for years. And that's Green Lizard Cycling, which is across the street and down the block from the Herndon Friends Meeting house. This year Herndon Friends had their biggest year in terms of bikes (138) AND parts (tons) donated during their annual collection event. And Green Lizard is the group that pushed them over the top.

Green Lizard has been collecting and holding bikes for this collection every fall for the last few years. Volunteers walk them over to the collection site where they are compacted and loaded onto our truck for delivery back to Rockville where they will soon head out to change lives around the world. This year it's Costa Rica. 

And this year Paul also got help from Herndon Middle School who donated many of those used parts we include in our shipments. Herndon Middle School has a Bike Repair Program that has been in place the last two years...and is supported through the Green Lizard Foundation...two guesses who's behind that humanitarian effort...

The Green Lizard Foundation was thought up and put in place through Green Lizard Cycling to improve the lives of children in their community. The Foundation provides bikes, parts, nutrition and learning opportunities to underserved youth. Every Thursday the shop sends volunteers over to the school to train students in bike mechanics and safe riding skills. Last year they had over 70 students involved in the program. A dozen participants earned bikes and 10 learned how to ride a bike for the first time. 

We wanted to bring you their story of success in the community because we love seeing more kids on bikes and when you leave a bike at Green Lizard Cycling this is what you are supporting. Whatever they can no longer use in their program is then donated to ours and those bikes and parts continue to impact lives with our partners overseas. 

The Green Lizard Foundation also supports community rides and events and encourages and welcomes young riders into the cycling community. This helps builds confidence, comradery, and promotes bike advocacy on neighborhood streets.