One Weekend, Two Containers

On April 25, 2015 Bikes for the World hosted what we dubbed The Battle Beyond the Bridge, a friendly competition between East Side and West Side Maryland. Representing the East was a collection site hosted by George and Mary Medicus in Kent Island. In the West corner, Otterbein United Methodist Church, a strong contender, and crowd favorite.

Kent Island represented the Underdog backed by a powerful team of scouts from troop 495. The Battle was a squeaker with no losers. In fact the winners will be MiBici in Costa Rica and Pinelands Creative Workshop in Barbados, our next two container shipments slated to be loaded during Bike Week, next week, by corporate group CEB.

In the betting world what we ended up with was likely a Push. Basically, no one 'lost' the contest. Kent Island turned in a most impressive collection at 266 bikes. Otterbein United Methodist topped their total last year collecting 232 bikes and 13 sewing machines.

Both collection managers, George and Mary and Cindy Brown and Mike Johnston (of Otterbein UM) have been recognized by BfW as Featured Volunteers.

Both sites, additionally collected mobility aids such as crutches, canes and walkers. This was in response to a request from BfW recipient partner Ability Bikes in Ghana. Ability Bikes is a co-op bike shop owned and operated by individuals with disabilities.

We had such an incredible turn out for these specialty requested items we will likely also be sending many to our partner Goodwill Panama.

Sewing machines will be in the container next week for Costa Rica.

Total bikes collected the weekend of April 25-26? 717 BIKES! But we really do need to acknowledge the effort turned in by Otterbein United Methodist.  They have been with us from the start and since their first annual collection they have now collected 2,607 bicycles and 94 portable sewing machines. 

Otterbein UM continues to hold the BfW record for a one-day, single-site turn out at 402 bikes in 2009. Since then they regularly collect over 200 bikes every last Saturday in April.