Another 700 Bike Weekend!

Hampton Fifth Graders

The weekend of May 21st marked another noteworthy weekend for Bikes for the World. Previously we bragged about our biggest weekend of the year, April 30-May 1, when we collected nearly 700 bikes. Well this past weekend, 20 days later, we topped that 2016 record!

We started the weekend with a rare Friday collection at a new partner school, Hampton Elementary in Lutherville MD. Turning over 40 bikes after a fun morning with the fifth graders and parents was a great start to this record weekend.

Saturday brought the rains and we braced ourselves for a lower turn out because of the weather. But a few rain drops wouldn't stop our supporters from coming out in force. That, and we had a little help from a new collection site in North Carolina where the sun was shining down brightly. Read more about our Carolina effort and this great collection at The Peak in Apex NC.
 

Also in our favor was a secret weapon in Glenwood MD...the Glenwood LEO Club. This club, seen here last fall, collected bikes throughout the year and stored them at the school. When their collection began Saturday morning they already had over 200 bikes donated! At the end of the day they had a personal best with 245 bikes collected in 2016.

Special thanks to Race Pace Bicycles in Ellicott City, Howard County's Clean Out Day, the Lions Club effort at the Alpha Ridge Recycling Center, and the police drop off at Glenwood for helping this crew collect so many bikes this year.

Matthew Dirndorfer and his crew of drivers

Less than 20 miles away our team was busy playing bike Tetris in a Penske truck. Eagle candidate Matthew Dirndorfer from troop 268 proved rain can't slow our efforts to change the world one bike at a time.

Matthew ended his long day at our warehouse after overflowing that Penske and our back up van and trailer dispatched from the Glenwood collection. He and his dad loaded a third van to transport his total 154 bikes to our Arlington VA warehouse. Matt lands a spot in our Eagle Project top five with this impressive turn out.

Phil Ruth

Not to be left out, our long time Cumberland area collection also played a little bike Tetris to fit all their collection bikes into our rented Penske.

For anyone wondering how many bikes fit in a 16 foot Penske we'll go with 121 assuming that last one is a very small bike that will fit in that left corner. For this load, the total bikes is 120 and BfW expert Phil Ruth has quite a few items riding up front with him to make that happen.

The Western Maryland effort is made up of the Rotary Club of Cumberland and the Western Maryland Wheelmen. Led by bike collection veterans Valerie Van Hollen, Larry Brock, Sue Moessinger, and Kate Kidwell this event always exceeds expectations.

This year we had a bit of a scare when Valerie called to say they were calling the ambulance because Phil didn't look so good. Turns out he had a bad reaction to a new medication and was fine, but needed to take a break...before the truck was loaded.

SO...the Cumberland area emergency response team offered to lend a hand in getting that job done. The crew got Phil a chair and he instructed them on how to properly load 120 bikes into a 16 foot Penske. No lie, without his guidance those bikes would have never fit in the truck!

Western MD Wheelmen and Rotarians brave rain

Many thanks to all our managers and volunteers who contributed to this huge success this weekend. Just last week we loaded two containers with corporate group CEB that involved donating 911 bikes. We carved out a hole in our warehouse supply of bikes that lasted all of eight days.

It's great to see those smiles in Cumberland despite the rain, cold, and emergency scare that threatened to damper the collection. This crew came out in force and got the job done.

They also gave Phil a fine send off as he likely packed up his last collection truck of bikes for us. We will sadly say goodbye to Phil at the end of the summer when he migrates west (once again) to be closer to his family.