The Beltway and Beyond: Collection Sites

Bike Madness Begins...

Moving on the right side of our brackets and in keeping with March Madness fun, let's take a look at where our collection predictions fall. Looking up at the board the community run collection side of our tournament contains nearly all our spring collection sites, with 34 slots available.

Two strong contenders are Arlington County's recycling event E-CARE (2,243 bikes overall) and Falls Church's Recycling Extravaganza (1,577 bikes overall). E-Care continues to collect nearly 100 bikes every single collection while Falls Church has seen a drop in results...we like to think that's because Bikenetic opened up and diverts some of those bikes through their shop. Since these numbers include TWO collections a year (spring and fall) let's look at some of the other powerhouses.

Otterbein United Methodist Church (2,607 bikes overall) leads the pack hands down. But the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek (1,947 bikes overall), led by Dick Foot, is gunning for them. In 2015 Carroll Creek was our top dog with 305 bikes collected for the year. So far in 2016, Foot has rallied support in the community and already has nearly 300 bikes with over a month left to go before the actual collection date. No doubt these two neighboring counties will more than fill a container with bikes.

Otterbein UM has a tough first match up though against St. Joseph's Catholic Community/Wesley Freedom Church (1,544 bikes overall). This team of neighboring churches comes out strong late in the season but never disappoints. Look for one of these two 'teams' in the final four against the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek.

But take a look at those Scouts. Bikes for the World is currently working with NINE potential Eagle Scouts hoping to collect bikes for their Eagle Projects. Several other collection sites have also recruited scouts to help prep bikes at their events. Safe to say, this season is being led by our scout partners! And heads up...we have two opportunities March 19th to donate to these Eagle Projects, one at The Hill Center with Will from Troop 380 and REI Fairfax with Sam from Troop 1104.

We are pleased to have 17 brand new collection manager/sites joining us this 2016 season. We are excited to assist these newly recruited partners and look forward to connecting them to our partner programs overseas.

In the end there are no losers in this tournament. We are all working together toward one common goal of providing affordable, reliable transportation to rural workers, students and patients around the world. As all of our partners here and abroad come together we hope to connect used bikes to new owners and build businesses, families, and entire communities in the process.