Pedals for Progress Bike Drive Saturday June 16

Anyone with an adult or child's bicycle in repairable condition is urged to donate his or her bike to Pedals for Progress for this worthy cause. Bikes can be dropped off from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, Saturday June 16, RAIN OR SHINE, at the West Windsor Community Farmers' Market, on Vaughn Drive off Alexander Road in the parking lot of the Princeton Junction Train Station.

Every year, affluent Americans buy 22 million new bicycles and discard millions of old ones, abandoning many more unused in basements, sheds, and garages; most end-up in our already overburdened landfills. Meanwhile, less fortunate people overseas need cheap, non-polluting transportation to access health care, jobs, markets, and schools.

Pedals for Progress, a New Jersey-based nonprofit, collects over 11,000 bicycles annually and has shipped more than 95,000 bicycles to developing countries in Latin American, Africa, and the Pacific Islands. Partner agencies in these countries train community members to recondition the bikes and distribute them at low cost to poor working adults. The bikes provide reliable transportation for the recipients, who use them for commuting to school and work, taking produce to market, or accessing heath care and other services.

Pedals for Progress cannot accept “bikes for parts” or disassembled bikes. It costs $28 to collect, process, ship, rebuild and distribute each bicycle. A donation toward shipping costs is necessary (suggested minimum $10 per bike). All cash and material donations are fully tax deductible and a receipt will be available at the collection site. PfP also accepts working portable sewing machines.

The drive is sponsored by the West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance. Members and volunteers will help donors unload their bicycles and prepare them for shipping. We collected 105 bicycles (and one portable sewing machine too) along with $1,082 to fund shipment to their destination in Guatemala in 2006. The year before, at this location 130 bicycles were collected and were shipped to a "second life" in Uganda.

Thanks in advance for your support of this good cause!