Featured Volunteer: Alex Obriecht Race Pace Bicycles

Keith Oberg and Alex Obriecht

Alex Obriecht is the owner of Race Pace Bicycles which just opened its seventh store this past year. All locations serve as drop off points for Bikes for the World.Actually Keith and Alex have been working together even longer than we've been known as Bikes for the World.

Part of the success of our relationship extends well beyond Alex. In each store, there is an employee who champions Bikes for the World...in fact it's probably several.

The Race Pace family is an extension of the BfW family and it shows in their presentation of our program. They know what we do, they follow our progress, and they share that information to donors who drop in their store to donate bikes.

Norm, Kevin, and Keith

And they don't just talk a good game. In 2013 Norman Jacobs, a part time employee at the Columbia location, bought a dozen brand new Kona bikes to donate to our program in Uganda.

Kevin Dolan, store manager at the time, has been supporting us since the very beginning and he's been moving around to the new locations as they open. We can tell he's taking our message with him.

Jon Posner used to work at the Ellicott City location. He LOVES BfW. He even took the collection 'on the road' setting up at the Howard County Green Festival every year. Collecting bikes, mentoring volunteers, and spreading the good work of BfW.

Jon and volunteer Jim Mitchell

It's so important to us to have these partnerships not only in the community but also in the bike industry. Working with bike shops allows us to increase the availability our donors have for a convenient drop off location. It saves us time to do bulk pick ups...some Race Pace Bicycle locations can hold 30 or more bikes at one time.

And it gets riders on better bikes! Often times we wind up with a donated bike because someone has upgraded or decided to buy a new bike rather than repair the old one. And Race Pace Bicycles serves the biking community unlike any other. These guys ride, they know bikes, and they know how to communicate with any type of rider. Their shops are welcoming to any level of cyclist and so is their staff. They were catering to the female cyclist before that was chic.

Alex has built an incredible bike business. They have connected to the community they serve and they continue to listen to their wants and needs and they deliver. It is this commitment that has carried them through rocky times that wiped out many other local (and bigger chain) stores.

They never once turned their back on our mission and continue to help deliver quality used bicycles to our partners overseas. Every year they get more and more bikes and Race Pace has been backing that financially as well. They feel so strongly about what we do and what it takes to achieve our goals that they see to it that we meet our $10/bike donation goal.

Race Pace has also been the drive-chain making possible our donations to the Baltimore Christmas Bike Project over the past decade. Donating bikes back to the community has been the mission of our partner in Columbia, St John’s United Methodist-Presbyterian Church and St John the Evangelist Catholic Church. The hardest part of a donation like this is our bikes come to us in need of repairs. Race Pace hopped in with a solution and has been making those repairs AND finding bikes for the kids in this project. More than 150 bikes since the beginning. Kudos and thanks to Alex and the entire Race Pace family.

Featured Volunteer: Joe Bolandrina

Joe Bolandrina has three container loadings under his belt, all at different locations. He's helped manage and mentor two or three bike collections for us. He's even done shop pick ups and individual pick ups. Impressive but not overly unusual you say?

Did we mention he lives more than 400 miles away?? No lie. This guy is north, north, north of us just outside Boston.

He only makes the trip for Bikes for the Philippines containers, because he has a personal connection to the program. And we only ship there once a year or who knows how often we'd see the Bolandrinas...because he doesn't come alone. And a winter loading doesn't deter Joe in the least.

Joe with Joel Esguerra

This year he found out about the loading date and he scheduled a truck rental. He didn't even hesitate or check the weather report first. And yes, Boston was getting hammered with snow. Nothing will stop Joe when it comes to helping out Filipinos or spreading the joy he gets from riding a bike.

Joe is a force unlike any other. He is almost always grinning ear to ear and he's full of energy and excitement. It's fun to have him around the warehouse. He's quick to jump in where needed, prepping bikes, walking them across the warehouse floor, or hopping up to load third levels.

His first visit to BfW was waaay down at our Lorton location where he also brought his wife and two kids, Lilly and Max. They assisted Stone Ridge and loaded the container in record time. His second trip was our third container heading to the Philippines where he again worked alongside the Stone Ridge crew (and Katie Ledecky!). We had a visit from the Philippine Ambassador that time.

Joe got the word out this year that he was making the trip and had a little mini collection before he came. His rented truck was stuffed to the grill with bikes from friends, neighbors and local bike shops lending a hand to his cause. He brought spare parts and tires, the works! This guy is a true class act, and a huge barrel of fun to be around.

Featured Volunteer: Ellen Condon

Bikes for the World is blessed with an amazing crew of volunteers who champion our mission at school, work, home...sometimes to strangers they meet on Metro. The reason we are able to affect the great number of lives we do around the world is because of our huge volunteer network. Many of our volunteers have been with us for years, even decades. Some times when they retire we even get to see more of them.

And sometimes we don't. Ellen Condon has been with Bikes for the World for over a decade. She has helped us collect bikes, promoted our cause to the bikers at NIH (where she worked) and even lent us her truck from time to time when Yvette had too many bikes to transport.

But as of last week Ellen retired from NIH and is getting ready to move out of state. While she will no longer be dropping bikes by the warehouse, she will no doubt continue to follow our progress online. But we sure will miss her around here.

Just this past summer Ellen helped put us in touch with the NIH Police Department which had collected over 40 abandoned bikes on campus. They recognized these bikes could be put to good use so they looked for an alternative to scrapping them. The NIH Police coordinated the effort with the NIH Bicycle Commuter Club, which Ellen was a member of, to get these bikes to Bikes for the World.

It's connections like this that have helped grow our organization over the years. Since Ellen found out about Bikes for the World we've nearly doubled our annual intake of bikes. It's our partnerships with bike shops, police departments, condo associations, universities, etc. that have really kept our organization rolling, especially in our slower collection months. This supply of bikes has allowed us to increase our number of donations per year and increase the number of partners we support around the globe. It's invaluable. And it's through dedicated volunteers like Ellen that we often 'find' these sources of bikes.

"I met Ellen, like I meet many of our volunteers for the first time, through email. That probably went on for a couple years until she needed to drop off a sewing machine and we realized we were practically neighbors. Now whenever I was overwhelmed with bikes in my yard I could just call Ellen and she came right over.

"Who doesn't like having a friend that owns a truck? You never know when you might need to move something. But how many truck owners will let you stack 20 bikes in the bed and then drive them cross town looking like the Beverly Hill Billies!?! That's Ellen," says Yvette Hess, Outreach Coordinator.

And Keith Oberg, Director remembers Ellen even further back, "Ellen was always such a cheerful, optimistic, and welcoming presence, whether at collections or at King Farm. She was a joy to work with and interact with other volunteers, she made the social aspect of Bikes for the World so much more positive. I went home smiling at the end of a day. Our loss is Michigan’s gain!" 

Featured Volunteer: Nick & Sarah

Yvette, Nick, and Sarah saying goodbye and good luck

We are proud to honor our own Nick and Sarah this month as our featured volunteer(s). It goes without saying that Nick gave so much to Bikes for the World over his four year tenure with us-and even from St. Louis, he's still giving.

When Nick started at BfW back in 2010 we were still operating under the umbrella of WABA without an official board. Nick's position didn't even exist before him. And look at us now!

When Nick came on board, he took over operations, managing the loadings, pick ups, and covering nearly every weekend of collections. It felt like the guy never had a day off...until August when we wouldn't see him for a month.

Shady Grove haul with Stone Ridge students

Nick helped establish our relationship with Stone Ridge back when the school first joined forces with us in 2012 and there were only two students. Nick helped expand that program, tripling the number the following year and adding the mechanic component that allows us to salvage usable parts off otherwise unusable bikes.

Nick also oversaw half a dozen storage sites for BfW, many of them at the same time. He was there when the first Dick's Sporting Goods trailer delivered bikes to our Lorton warehouse and there when the last came into our Arlington warehouse.

Who needs a ladder when you have a table

Nick was the muscle behind our loadings and pick ups. He also helped establish some of the organizational practices we still employ today. More importantly Nick engaged with our donors, supporters, and volunteers with an attitude that never let on that he was overworked and understaffed. Nick always got the job done...with a smile on his face.

He mentored our weekly volunteer night out at King Farm which provided many SSL hours to students in Montgomery County. Nick was also joined by several older volunteers who came every week to help strip parts or exchange the latest beer recipes with home brewer Nick.

Sarah with her students from Eastern HS

And we cannot overlook Sarah who came with Nick to the DC area and ended up marrying him. Sarah also loves bikes and is passionate about our mission at BfW. On several occasions, even after Nick left BfW, Sarah would bring her students to a loading for service hours and to provide an important lesson about community and helping on a global level.

We also appreciate the support Sarah gave Nick while he served as Operations Manager for BfW. She sacrificed quite a bit, with the long hours and sometimes seven-days-a-week schedule Nick often held.

"I was very impressed with Nick's work ethic and dedication to the organization and its mission," said long time volunteer Ken Woodard of Stone Ridge. He added that Nick had a great knowledge of bikes and how they work and could relay that expertly in language that made sense to any new 'mechanic'.

 Last year the Nick and Sarah Combo took off for a great adventure in St. Louis. They would soon be two of the founding members of Arcana Distilling which is starting to really take shape. Instead of hauling a trailer full of bikes Nick is now moving antique cathedral windows for their new warehouse.

They are firming up architectural plans on the old 1950s American Legion Hall that will soon hold their barrels filled with locally grown and produced Whiskeys and Brandys. If you are ever in St. Louis, you should stop in for snifter.

And speaking of St. Louis...Nick is actually the guy who connected us to Bicycle Works in St. Louis, where he now occasionally volunteers.

Bicycle Works loading crew in August

BWorks works in the community refurbishing old bikes and teaching kids about bikes and tools. They also occasionally end up with a container full of bikes to donate to one of our global partners. This past August they helped us out by supplying over 400 bikes to one of our newest partners, DARNA in Morocco.

For their first container donation back in 2012, Nick went out to St. Louis to show them the ins and outs to loading. Since then they have donated thousands of bikes to our partners around the world. And this last loading was extra special with Nick on hand to help once again. THANK YOU NICK for everything; WE MISS YOU!

Featured Volunteer: Linda Hansen

Linda Hansen and Jackie Colonna in 2013

"I first met Linda Hansen maybe seven years ago when I first started working with Bikes for the World. That was four offices and six warehouses ago. I guess maybe we've both been around for a while," remembers Outreach Coordinator Yvette Hess.

BUT, Linda predates BfW staff by just as many years. In fact she predates Bikes for the World itself! Linda and Keith started working together in 1997 back when we were working with Pedals for Progress.

She and Muriel Grim got together and started brain storming on their first ever bike collection with St Mary of Sorrows and its community. That was maybe 2,000 bikes ago.

For Linda, it didn't make sense to keep this tucked away within the pews of St. Mary's. It takes a village and she intended to reach out across parishes to recruit the village. Throughout the years they brought together Burke Presbyterian, Accotink Unitarian Universalist, Lord of Life Lutheran, and St. George's Methodist to work on this common vision. Her mission was simple: people helping people.

Linda also recruited other collection managers to take over for her after her initial efforts. And when I say initial, I'm talking half a decade or more as collection manager. This is one of the critical parts of keeping a successful collection going. Not only recruiting dedicated volunteers but also moving them into the management position. Not passing the torch successfully has been the undoing for several of our long standing collections that have been with us since the beginning. Finding someone to take over as collection manager is key to keeping a collection point alive.

And Linda made that transition seamless. This doesn't mean she moved on, she is still very much involved in this annual collection at St Mary's; she just prefers to hang in the shadows. And here we are shining a spotlight on her!

"But going back to when I first met Linda...I had just come on as Office Manager and Linda needed something from us. She said, I'll be right over. And when I came out to meet her she instantly grabbed me and gave me a huge hug. That's just who she is. And no doubt, that's why she's been able to keep that amazing cast of characters around the collection all these years."

Over the years St Mary's remained a consistent supporter of Bikes for the World, both in bike donations and financially. Their support has allowed us to affect thousands of lives around the world. Linda tells us it's really a win-win relationship; nobody really capitalizes it's just true giving and sharing.

Featured Volunteer: Lucas Kramer

These kids above are some of our Filipino beneficiaries from Batangas Talahib Pandayan National High School and they are personally saying thank you to our Featured Volunteer of the month Lucas Kramer. So who the heck is Lucas and what makes him so special?

I actually know Lucas's parents from way back, but I only just met Lucas at the Alternative Gift Fair in Takoma Park a few years ago. He was there to make a donation to Bikes for the World and several other organizations. We actually see him every year when he donates part of his allowance to help kids in the Philippines get bikes and tubes. And well we think that's pretty darn cool. And so did they. And they wanted to share their gratitude.

Last year Bikes for the World had to sit the Alternative Gift Fair out to give other non-profits a chance so we didn't see Lucas there. But lucky us, he needed a few volunteer hours for school and he turned up in our warehouse just last month! Not only was this kid smashing open his piggy bank to support us, but he also wanted to put a little muscle into it.

When his mom challenged him to consider donating some of his allowance during his volunteer visit he didn't hesitate to open up his charity jar and dump out the contents, entirely! "As a parent, what I love is how proud he was to bring you that envelope of money. He's beginning to connect the dots of giving wealth AND time to causes he believes in," reported Karla.

And that he did. The whole family rolled up their sleeves and grabbed wrenches to help us prep some bikes to ship overseas. And we told the kids in the Philippines about that too and again they were like, WOW! that guy's younger than us and he's in there helping us get bikes?! They made a video and sent that our way to share with Lucas.

Dave said, "that left the kid speechless, introspective and then super-motivated to volunteer again!" And after Lucas saw the video he was all smiles, "I feel like such a good person right now."

The cool thing about our volunteer opportunities is that they are great for families. It's a fun activity that gives back and truly makes a difference around the world. For the Kramers it was a good team effort that allowed Lucas to fully participate despite some physical limitations. Like many kids that come through our warehouse he struggled with the occasional rusty pedal which his mom was able to help torque off in a pinch.

Lucas is your typical pre-teen boy. He loves playing video games and building things with Legos. His favorite classes in school are art, lunch and PE. He's crazy about dogs. He loves to eat, Thai, 100%. He likes the beach, loves to swim, and enjoys riding motorcycle with his dad.

But Lucas never learned how to ride a bike, it's a small regret his mom shared with us. He likes being out on the bike with them but they worried about the hills and torque necessary to pedal a bike through an obstacle. You see unlike other kids who come through our warehouse Lucas truly does have a bigger challenge on those rusty parts that require a little more muscle than others; Lucas has Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Because September is Duchenne Awareness Month we wanted to bring you Lucas's whole story. In our warehouse we will be showing our muscle in support of Lucas and we are asking you to do the same. September 7th is World Duchenne Awareness Day and we are asking you to support Lucas by becoming more aware of his disease.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy affects 1 in every 3,500 live male births which accumulates to about 20,000 new cases each year world wide. Duchenne results in progressive loss of strength and is caused by a mutation in the gene that encodes for dystrophin. In layman’s terms, because dystrophin is absent, muscle cells are easily damaged. This slowly happens which can lead to medical problems that eventually affect the heart and lungs. Although Duchenne can be passed from parent to child, approximately 35% of cases occur because of a random spontaneous mutation. In other words, it can affect anyone. There is no cure for Duchenne.

What does this mean for Lucas? We ask you to watch the video below to learn more about this disease. Basically, due to the lack of production of a specific protein called dystrophin, he does not build normal muscle. Weight bearing physical activities and going up & down stairs causes scar tissue to build up in his muscles, most notable in his thick calves. He can do permanent irreversible damage by doing anything that is weight bearing.

Back to that original question of this post...who the heck is Lucas and what makes him so special? Well, as I stated earlier I am biased, so you can judge that for yourself. But if you've ever seen his electric smile, been on the opposing end of his quick wit, or exchanged commentary on whether dinner was spicy enough...I suspect you already know the answer to that question!

Featured Volunteer: Margie Ligon

This month we head back down 95 South to our partners in Charleston, to recognize this month's volunteer Margie Ligon (here on the left).

Margie worked with the Youth Ministry at Philadelphia United Methodist Church in Fort Mill, South Carolina....barely....this is nearly on the North Carolina line, quite a distance from our warehouse in Charleston.

Here at home in DC, if someone had contacted us hoping to do a collection nearly 200 miles from our warehouse HQ we may have been forced to turn down the offer.   The strain on our resources may have been too great.

But when an entire United Methodist community comes together and offers a statewide challenge...you tend to pay attention and make exceptions.

And that is what brought Philadelphia UM and Margie Ligon and us together. Margie heard about Bikes for the World through a state UM conference where their Bishop offered up a challenge. He was asking each district to collect XX number of bikes (we don't know the actual number, but as Margie tells us it was not aggressive enough for her).

"I felt like my church by itself could collect what he was expecting an entire district of 66 churches to collect," thought Margie. Never one to sit back and wait, Margie cut to the chase, she contacted us directly here in DC and said, how do I get our church on your calendar?

We connected Margie with our area coordinator Paul Keefer in Charleston and the rest is sort of history.

She recruited the youth volunteers you see above to help collect and prep the used donated bikes. She also engaged the Youth Ministry in a fundraiser to help raise money to buy new bikes to supplement the donation...there was no way she was falling short of the Bishop's goal.

In fact Margie waged her own goal within their congregation, 200-300 bikes. What did Philadelphia UM end up collecting this spring? 289 bikes.

Charleston BfW bikes in Costa Rica

The youth group along with assistance from the men's group bought and assembled 114 brand new bikes to be donated among two BfW partners, CESTA in El Salvador and MiBici/FINCA Costa Rica.  But the outreach in the community also brought in 175 donated used bikes!

To quote BfW Coordinator Paul Keefer, "Margie don't mess around."

Those nearly 300 bikes were shared among two containers shipped in April and June from our location in Charleston. The first arrived in El Salvador and the second was shared among community groups in rural Costa Rica.

CESTA trained mechanic Cristian Martinez

In Costa Rica, bikes were sold to rural residents needing transportation for work and school. Money raised will help support many local businesses in the form of loans to increase production.

In El Salvador new mechanics like Cristian learn skills that will help them professionally to earn more for their families.

"I learned new skills, things I never did before, earn money, and also encouraging me to realize I could take on new challenges in other fields," Cristian Martinez.

Margie moved on to First United Methodist Church of Belmont North Carolina where she was recruited to help the Youth Ministry there. From what we've seen at BfW when Margie puts her mind, heart, and soul into something she affects positive results. We have no doubt there are great things in store for Belmont. And we hope to partner with Margie again soon.

Featured Volunteer: Larry Silverman

Who is Larry Silverman? "I've been around the BfW warehouse for years and I've never seen this guy."

Perhaps. Larry Silverman IS BfWNY. New York City!?! Not quite, but you get the idea. So you may not have seen him around Arlington or Rockville, but this guy is swimming in donated bikes.

And truth be told, you may have seen him once down in Arlington when he came during an inauguration service event several terms ago.... Since that visit our work sort of stuck with him.

Then back in the winter of 2014 he contacted us and said, how can I get more involved. BTW, I'm in Long Island. So we thought we'd offer him a challenge to be an area coordinator. And he said, I'll see your challenge and raise you a warehouse. That's right, Larry tackled the biggest hurdle right off the bat, he found space to hold bikes, hundreds of them.

Next we connected him to a scout hoping to work with us on an Eagle Project and the bikes started pouring in. There were several more collections, a New York based youth group, Recycle-A-Bicycle, Citi Bike New York...we seemed to be getting bikes from every direction and boxes and boxes of parts.

Director Keith Oberg left the office one day and went for a long drive to think about what to do with all those bikes in New York. Or maybe he had already scheduled a loading from that location and drove up there to mentor Larry in how to load a container. Yeah, maybe that was it.

Regardless, here this new volunteer area coordinator found himself swamped with bikes and loading his first container to be donated to Village Bicycle Project Sierra Leone. And we found ourselves with a first time loading from New York, how exciting!

This past spring after almost a year hiatus, we got the call again. Kenny Marx was up to good again; he wanted to collect bikes at PortFest as he had in previous years. We called Larry, who said sure, I'll drive a truck, lend a hand, and add these bikes to the warehouse!

Little did he know Kenny would more than double the number of bikes he typically gets at this collection. And it would be cold. And rainy. All day. What sounded like a simple pick up the truck, grab the bikes, and deliver them to the warehouse kind of day turned into an epic adventure.

Larry picked up the rental truck and 7am that morning, made several stops throughout the day grabbing bikes around Long Island, then had to lend a hand at PortFest where they were swamped (pun definitely intended) with bikes. Then there was the long drive back to the warehouse, unloading for two hours, return the truck...he collapsed at home after 1:30 the next morning!

Larry reports that the rain started at 4am and never let up the entire day. By the end of the event he was soaked and shivering. If this isn't the mark of a dedicated volunteer then we don't know what is! 

Featured Volunteer: Larry Orwig

Larry Orwig is a Glenwood Lions member and extremely active in international service projects, including the BfW annual bike drive in Glenwood Maryland.

Larry is a huge cog in this finely tuned machine. And he's a key reason the Club celebrated reaching the 1,000 bikes collected mark this past spring.

"How many bikes  can one community give year-after-year. I keep thinking there must be a point when there are no more not-used bikes," ponders Mary Powers. Mary is the Glenwood Lions/Leos advisor that works closely with the Lions men and the students at Glenwood Middle School on this bike annual bike project.

Mary took over the role as advisor on this project a few years ago and both Larry and Harrison Morson (also from the Glenwood Lions Club) helped make that transition seamless.

While collecting bikes for reuse overseas is an important part of our program we cannot overlook the impact this project has on our environment and of course the students who participate year after year. Larry knows first hand how life changing a bike can be to a family in a poor, rural African community. And he also knows students here benefit greatly by being involved in the project.

Two years ago Jeff Dannis, Operations Division Chief, Bureau of Environmental Services, Department of Public Works, approached Bikes for the World about partnering up with the Alpha Ridge Waste Transfer Station in Howard County. This is an effort Director Keith Oberg really wanted to make work, but the distance from our warehouse in Arlington VA and the demands of the schedule were too much for the tiny staff at BfW to handle.

But the Glenwood Lions Club had eager volunteers, trucks, and even secured storage at the school for bikes...making this idea of collecting bikes at Alpha Ridge a real possibility. Without any introductions or support, the Glenwood Lions Club and the staff at Alpha Ridge entered into a pilot program to collect bikes at the transfer station on behalf of Bikes for the World.

Let's not underestimate the Leos either.  If you can't find Larry buried in a trailer full of bikes (see above), you'll likely find him smack dab in the middle of a group of budding bike mechanics at the school (see right).

And in 2015, the Glenwood bike collection netted 180 bikes, quite an impressive turn out. But after joining forces with Alpha Ridge, the 2016 collection topped 245 bikes.

This became an issue when the school's storage area overflowed. BfW had to make a special trip up last fall to help alleviate space, but Larry wanted to make sure the kids were still involved in the program. So we set up a special bike prepping session in the fall with the Leos club.

Representatives from BfW, Yvette Hess and Jim Mitchell met at the school to mentor the kids and load up bikes to take back to our warehouse in Virginia. Larry was a key force during that session helping to mentor the kids and teach them a little about bike mechanics and tool leverage, just as he does during the annual collection in May.

This year, 2017, the Glenwood collection surpassed our 1k bike marker with flying colors. Thanks to partnership with Alpha Ridge, this year's collection brought in 319 bikes, a school record.

Many Lion members participate in this event in May working side by side with the kids. But their commitment doesn't start and end there. They also supply a crew to work the waste transfer station several times a month. They accept bikes, monitor the quality, and transport them to the storage area at the school.

Without Larry's help at Alpha Ridge none of this would be possible.

Featured Volunteer: Sam Clingman and Dad

Sam's the man! Meet Sam Clingman of Frederick Maryland, our featured volunteer this month. Sam is the guy who kept all the volunteers in line this past month up at that monumental collection with the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek.

And when we say monumental, we mean it! This Rotarian effort brought over 900 bikes into our warehouse over the past year. Actually, that's not even true. Led by Rotarians Norm Birzer and Richard Foot, this bike collection took place over the past year and bikes were stored in an Adamstown barn as they were collected. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them.

And when we realized how many bikes they had on hand we had a genius idea. We decided to bring our container directly into their collection site at Triangle Motors in Frederick. And from there we would simply roll the bikes in from the collection to our shipment, eliminating the need to transport them to our warehouse in Rockville.

And Sam's the guy who kept us all on track. Seriously, while many volunteers were occupied loading the container in the rain, Sam managed the group of volunteers prepping bikes on the side and getting them to the loading crew in time for the next row of bikes. No short task; the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek ALSO collected over 100 bikes just that ONE day.

And Sam is no rookie when it comes to loading either. This is actually his second container loading with us in less than a month.

We only just met Sam personally back on April 8th during our warehouse warming party. Sam came down with his dad, Tom, to accept our 1k Club award on behalf of the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek. In case anyone is counting (and we know they are) they are now over 3,000 bikes! Stay tuned, we expect to be creating a 5k Club any day now.

Tom Clingman is a recent member of the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek after moving here from North Carolina. Getting involved with the Rotarians here really helped them settle into the community quickly and to feel welcomed.

"Working with Bikes for the World has been the best thing that has happened for Sam since we moved to Maryland in 2015. Norm did a great job teaching Sam to work on bikes and making him feel valued for his efforts. The recent volunteer opportunities and the connections he has made with other people has been so positive for him!" reports Dad.

It goes without saying this father-son team has been great for us too! Tom is the Chief Development Officer at the YMCA of Frederick County and he was quick to get the Y involved in the effort. In addition to helping collect and pick up bikes throughout the year, Tom recruited members of the Y Leaders Club to help before and during the collection. Some of them worked side by side with Sam to keep that bike processing line moving during a busy Saturday!

Featured Volunteer: Tom and Roger Rinker of The Bicycle Escape

This month we have a pretty exciting event happening at Bikes for the World. And we aren't talking about our recent move to Rockville. Okay, so this April in general is a very exciting month for BfW! But the big news we are talking about here, is a first-time-ever loading happening in Frederick Maryland.

It's no secret that the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek has been absolutely KILLING IT collecting bikes over the last few years. Truth is, they've always been one of our biggest partners since we became BfW in 2005. Since then, the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek has collected and donated well over 2,000 bicycles to our program and there's no sign of that slowing down any time soon.

To give you an idea of what they are doing up there in Frederick...in 2014 they collected 149 bicycles. In 2015, they turned up the heat and collected 305. In 2016, under the leadership of Richard Foot, the Rotarians set a goal of collecting one bike for every day in the year. Last time I checked that was 365 days. But the Club looked past their goal and turned in an impressive 539 bikes that year. In 2017, the reins were handed over to Norm Birzer and let's just say they've already surpassed last year's collection and their collection is scheduled for April 22!

So back at BfW headquarters we had a staff meeting and said, this is crazy! Why don't we just bring in a container to Frederick and do the loading there instead of bringing all those bikes back to DC. See, not only is the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek collecting bikes, but they have secured year long storage, have a cache of volunteers on hand, do regular pick ups at police departments, recycling centers, and bikes shops. Then they also coordinate community cooperation to pull all this off. They ARE a small BfW splinter operating just outside our normal radius of operation.

So this year on Earth Day, April 22 the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek will host their annual bike collection at Triangle Motors on North Market Street. And right there alongside the collection we'll have our container being loaded at the same time by the same volunteers who helped collect all those bikes. And if you drop your bike off that day, you can stay and watch it go into the container and you'll know exactly where it's heading. The project we support in El Salvador CESTA.

But as we pointed out, this kind of success takes a village. Quite a few people came together over the last couple years to make this happen. Two of those people are being honored this month at BfW, Tom and Roger Rinker.

Tom owns The Bicycle Escape in Frederick and has been a huge Bikes for the World supporter over the years. The Bicycle Escape feeds the Rotary club hundreds of bicycles over the year, but more importantly the shop also donates tons of tubes, tires, parts, and accessories. All of these 'extra' items are especially important to our partner mechanics overseas who have to get all these bikes back on the road once they arrive...AND keep them rolling.

"Roger (Tom's dad) has been the driving force in these recycling activities and helping with our annual collection," said Norm Birzer, Bicycle Committee Chair.

Tom and Roger were also behind the connection made with the Frederick Police Department to facilitate the release of a fleet of police bikes for the 2015 bike collection.

"Tom Rinker is Chairman of the Frederick Bicycle Coalition, organized to foster bicycling in the Frederick community.  The Bicycle Escape sponsors several charitable/bicycle-related events every year, as well as other events to promote cycling in the community.  They are also very active in sponsoring and promoting the annual Tour de Frederick," Richard Foot.

Bikes for the World is honored to be associated with the Rinkers. Thank you for your support!

Featured Volunteer: Zak Elmanakhly

So this face might be unfamiliar to many of our regulars around the warehouse, but his impact to our program should not go unnoticed.

Zak Elmanakhly has gone the distance for Bikes for the World, quite literally. Miles and miles and miles. Zak has been helping us centralize and condense our stock pile of bikes that stretches along the east coast.

Zak came to us in November of last year after talking with Andy Williamson who works with us on collections and also on local donations to kids in Kentucky. Andy has quite a bit of experience hauling large number of bikes and pulled Zak into the conversation.

Andy Williamson

Not to get too much off topic, but Andy also has quite a bit of miles in for Bikes for the World. We honored him a few years ago for his work with that bike donation in Kentucky. He's now moved, repaired, and delivered nearly 900 bikes to kids in this program!

But back to Zak... so he started last fall by collecting some of our New York bikes and bringing them down to our main warehouse in Virginia. We needed these bikes to help round out our final containers shipping from our Pentagon City warehouse. Those bikes helped complete the container we were shipping to Village Bicycle Project in Ghana last December.

Then came the bigger task. Pittsburgh. We've known for a while now we needed a plan to close down our Pittsburgh warehouse. But we also knew there were close to 200 bikes there thanks to a very successful Eagle Project back in 2015. Moving them would be no easy task.

To say Zak jumped at the idea might sound exaggerated, but none the less, true. After spending some time in Bali and Egypt, Zak arrived home to Connecticut only to leave two days later en-route to our warehouse in Pennsylvania. Once there, this is what he found, a basement full of bikes.

So after a six hour drive to Pittsburgh, Zak immediately got to work loading the rented U-Haul that awaited him. Ahh, but if only it were that easy. The bikes were in the basement and Zak was by himself. With the help of a very well used elevator, Zak brought all those bikes to the surface a handful at a time.

He then had to put some final prep work into some of the bikes so that all 142 would fit on the truck. Finally, he loaded the truck and drove to DC. Again to recap, jetlagged and tired, Zak drove six hours to Pittsburgh. Once there he spent the next five hours moving and prepping bikes by himself. Then hemade an overnight trip driving the final leg to Virginia to deliver this load to our storage area at Bonzai Sports.

These bikes will make our next shipment possible at the beginning of March. We hope at that time to be settled into our new permanent home...details coming soon!....

Featured Volunteer: Paul Keefer

"We're gaining momentum, but it's taking more time than I thought," Paul Keefer.

Seriously, keep your eyes on this guy. And don't listen to what he says...he's got a tailwind pushing him with a hurricane force.

Paul Keefer is behind our Bikes for the World South Carolina effort and he's a hard guy to stop or slow. He joined forces with us in the fall of 2015 and they are already gearing up to ship a container from his location possibly next month.

Let's break it down: This first thing Paul did was find Premier Logistics who generously donated warehouse space for our bikes. Then he armed himself with BfW facts and photos and started looking for collection managers to fill it with bikes. 

We helped jump start is effort by connecting him to one of our committed partners in North Carolina, Cape Fear Academy. Teacher, Becky Copenhaver has engaged her students in this project over the last few years and in 2015 she knocked our socks off, putting 121 bikes in Paul's hands.

Paul helped orient the managers running collections, he drove trucks, delivered supplies, loaded and unloaded bikes. Essentially he became the 'Keith Oberg' of the Carolinas. Next came the University of Coastal Carolina. And more bikes.

Then earlier this year in came an email from The Peak Church in NC. They wanted to hold a bike collection. We scratched our heads regarding logistics and kicked it to Paul. He didn't hesitate- YEAH, I GOT THIS!

It was quite a haul from Apex NC to Charleston SC...nearly 300 miles ONE WAY to be exact. But that effort brought in another 100 bikes.

Before we knew it Paul was sitting on half a container of bikes; things were shaping up nicely in the Carolinas. We could see a shipment coming from there early in 2017...and it's about to happen!

Paul and Michael Gregg

Paul switched gears and started doing outreach to grow the Bikes for the World name in the area. He started taking financial donations. He reached out to scouts, schools, and churches...looking for volunteers and collection locations.

The Carolina Youth Development Center stepped up and held the first event, netting a few bikes for the pile. Paul then tabled an event at North Charleston Community Days to help spread awareness for BfW and what we do.

The big break came when BfW put Paul in touch with United Methodist Church youth leaders.  Working with George Howle and Chris Lynch, Paul started brainstorming on how to bring together 12 regions on this collective effort to deliver bikes around the world.

And this Christmas, Union United Methodist Church in Irmo, SC was the first one to deliver. 26 brand new bikes to be exact! They set out with a goal to collect 13 bikes for Bikes for the World and Union UM came together and doubled it!

Paul now estimates about 300 bikes in the Hanahan warehouse. And forced us to address the need to load a shipment early in February (which we were eager to do given the warmer temperatures south)

The United Methodist goal is to collect 1200 bikes total; 100 from each region. Three of the regions are already planning collections with Paul; and he's got one on the calendar for April.

Couple that with the local bike shops he's working with and a recent connection with Tom Lawrence who offered another 300 bikes from his 20 year passion of collecting a repairing bikes and it's all coming together fast. Exactly like we thought. Yeah, he's got this.