BfW's 100,000th Donated Bike Has a New Home

Gerardo Jesús

Gerardo lives at home with his mother, two brothers and one sister in Tempate, a rural community located in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. He graduated with excellent grades from the elementary school in Tempate. Because of this, his teacher helped him obtain a scholarship at a private bilingual high school. This high school is called Educarte and is located in another community called Tamarindo.

The scholarship is assisting his family financially to allow Gerardo to attend this private school. This new school is almost 21 miles from his home in Tempate. Every day, to get to school, Gerardo first has to go to Cartagena, which is 7km, or 4.3 miles, from his home. Then in Cartagena he takes a bus to Tamarindo which is 17 miles from Cartagena.

Thanks to Gerardo's bicycle, he can ride the first four miles from home to take the bus and make it safely to his high school. Without a bike, Gerardo would either need to walk to the bus stop or pay someone to drive him there.

Harvey Ollis with the 100k bike

This 'special' bike delivered to Guanacaste in December from Bikes for the World is helping Gerardo attend this great school, and saves him valuable time he can now use to study. It is also helping his family avoid the high cost of paying for transportation to deliver Gerardo to catch the bus he needs to arrive to school on time.

This red Specialized was Bikes for the World's 100,000th donated bike and was loaded and shipped on November 15, 2014 as part of America Recycles Day festivities. The 100k bike was donated to Gerardo in Costa Rica because he has proven to be a person who works hard to achieve his goals and has been able to provide for his family and ensure their well being.

100,000 Bike Donated

On November 15, 2014 Bikes for the World loaded the 100,000th bike!

As part of America Recycles Day, Bikes for the World was joined by the US EPA and Keep America Beautiful, along with volunteers, some of whom have been with BfW since the beginning in 2005, for this milestone loading.

Thanks to the generosity of JetBlue we were able to fly in Luis Jimenez, director of FINCA Costa Rica for this monumental event. The 100,000th bike, along with over 500 others, will be donated to Costa Rica where it will be used to help an individual get to work.

A regular BfW Meet Up volunteer group from Northern Virginia joined us Saturday in the warehouse to help prep bikes for shipping. We also saw many new and veteran volunteers who came out to help us celebrate this event. Director, Keith Oberg thanked DICK'S Sporting Goods for donating over 15% of the total bikes we've donated over the years (and that's only been since our partnership began 3 years ago). He also recognized Vornado, who allows us to store bikes in this Metro accessible location and helps make the partnership with DICK'S possible.

Bikes for the World awarded Jim Mitchell with the annual Pedal Wrench award, which recognizes the outstanding effort of a single volunteer over the year. Jim continues to work with BfW as a collection manager through his church in Eldersburg MD where he's has helped collect over 1,300 bikes. Jim also joined us many nights at King Farm to help mentor youth in the Rockville Youth Bike Project. He regularly makes pick ups at partner shop Race Pace Bicycles to allow us to collect bikes year round as far away as Baltimore and occasionally Westminster. Race Pace is one of our largest bike shop partners.

Both Jim and Keith loaded the 100k bike into the container for Costa Rica. Keith addressed the 50 or so volunteers on hand to thank them for making this possible.

"It really is the work of all. Hundreds and hundreds...thousands of people...donors, volunteers, staff, people overseas... Just an incredible accomplishment after 10 years.

"I'm just overwhelmed. Thank you so much and thank you for being part of this for the past 10 years. And for what you'll be part of in the future. And thank you for being here today." Keith Oberg
You can see the video of the loading here.  We shared a ton of photos on Facebook, but  you can also view photos here.

FOX 5 was on hand during the entire event and captured the prepping, loading, and ceremony for a piece that aired on Saturday and Sunday. You can hear the story told by Keith Oberg and Luis Jimenez in this package that aired on FOX 5.

Special Guest Helps Load Container

Luis Jimenez Director FINCA Costa Rica

With just a little bit of planning, Bikes for the World is set to donate its 100,000th bike on November 15, 2014, which just happens to be America Recycles Day.

So that's making the loading this month for Costa Rica at the Bikes for the World warehouse fun...we are thrilled to be involved in this national event.

But that's not all! We are, after all, loading the 100,000th bike Saturday AND we also had the director of FINCA Costa Rica getting his hands dirty with us in the container!

JetBlue Crew

This was truly a special loading at Bikes for the World, working side by side with our partner, getting real time feedback on what we were loading and how we were packing it. And Luis assures us, it's much easier to load a container than unload one...don't we always say that every time we try to shut the container door?

This was all made possible thanks to JetBlue who offered a few travel vouchers to us earlier in the year. So we were able to fly Luis here couresty JetBlue. And what a treat...the JetBlue crew joined us Thursday night to help us get this container loaded and Set to Sail to Costa Rica!

Jeff, Taylor, and Paul look over rims

Quite a few of our veteran volunteers made the trek down to our Arlington warehouse for this milestone shipment. We say 'made the trek' because we saw a few King Farm regulars down there, like Jeff and Harvey. It's quite a trip around the beltway during rush hour...but these guys know how long the journey was to 100k. A trip around the beltway was totally worth it; they couldn't miss being part of the 100k load.

We flipped through our 10 year book, remembering old warehouses, standout collections, and the amazing volunteers we met along the way. By the end of the night we had half the container already loaded. Well on our way to 100k!

Yvette and Peyton practicing the jitterbug

Whether you just started with Bikes for the World last week or last decade, this is something you didn't want to miss. We got a lot of work done, but we had fun doing it...don't we always?

There was a little singing and of course dancing...there's always a little dancing every Thursday volunteer night! We processed bikes, rolled them across the warehouse, and packed them tightly into the container.

Everyone took a break to pose with the 100k bike. And to help celebrate America Recycles Day coming up that weekend, we even snapped a few #RecyclingSelfies to add to ARD social media sites. Pick your favorite site and search the hashtag...see if you can find all our #RecyclingSelfies.

#RecyclingSelfies