Rotary International Impacts Local Community

If we measured success by the number of bikes we collect, recognizing Philip Dondes of the West Springfield Rotary Club is a year overdue. And while we do count the number of bikes collected at our events, compare them year to year, and even count the number of bikes we ship overseas, what we really measure our success by is lives impacted.

And again, recognizing Philip Dondes is possibly a year overdue.

Bikes for the World collects and donates 14,000 bikes annually affecting lives from Costa Rica to Ghana to Bohol, Philippines. But it all starts here in our local communities. With leaders like Dondes organizing and managing bike collections for BfW, not only are we able to impact a greater number of people overseas, but we also have an enormous impact right here at home.

Dondes brought together the West Springfield Rotary Club, Irving Middle School, Bikes for the World, The Bike Lane, Kristi's Christmas, a local charity, and Interstate Van Lines who helped store bikes to be donated locally.

The Rotary Club, along with students from Irving, promoted the collection, hosted the one day drop off point, and prepped bikes to be shipped overseas. This year the collection netted  135 bikes and 3 sewing machines. Last year they collected 94. If we did keep track of numbers, we'd tell you the West Springfield Rotary Club collected 22 bikes their first year with us and 30 their second. The impact Dondes has had on the collection speaks for itself.

But it's the impact the collection has had on the community that we want to recognize. "This was a real team effort. Local businesses and volunteers supported the students' efforts. I witnessed positive attitudes, dedication, and mentoring," said Dondes.

Every year Dondes gives a presentation at the Middle School explaining the mission of Bikes for the World and highlighting the importance a bicycle has in someones life overseas. The collection is held just before Earth Day encouraging recycling and stressing the impact reuse can have on communities worldwide.

Courtesy Kristi's Christmas

A Rotary club's mission is to encourage service internationally, but also locally in the community. Using this motivation, Dondes organized a local bike donation through a charity close to the Club. Kristi's Christmas was founded by Rotary members Karen and Bill Brown to remember their daughter who was killed in an automobile accident in 1986.

"We included Kristi's Christmas as a recipient for bikes because our Rotary Club felt the need to donate locally as well as internationally. Kristi's Christmas has an impeccable record for getting donations to the kids who need them most. It was a natural fit." Philip Dondes

Last year Bikes for the World, through this effort, donated 13 bicycles to Kristi's Christmas. 19 bikes will be donated to Fairfax area students in need this month.

Because Bikes for the World does not refurbish bicycles, Dondes had to find a mechanic to look over all the bikes, making repairs, before the bikes could be donated to the charity. The Bike Lane in Springfield graciously donated mechanics' time to do this safety check. Interstate Van Lines loaned Dondes space to store the bikes until they could be donated later this month.

Job well done.

Service Above Self

Bikes for the World 'fines' Richard Foot this month in recognition of our featured volunteer series. Fellow Rotarians will recognize and understand this 'fining' immediately. Dick, pay up.

Dick Foot is a member of the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek (RCCC). During Club meetings the President will 'fine' a member as a way of recognizing them for their accomplishments or to share what's going on in their life. President of the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek, Fred Genau, this is your ticket to fine Dick Foot, BfW volunteer of the month of April.

This year in their annual Bikes for the World bike drive, the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek collected 149 bikes that will be donated globally over the next few months.

This isn't even a personal best. Over the years the Club has collected over 1300 bikes for Bikes for the World. And although we are naming Dick Foot as our volunteer of the month, there are a lot of people behind the success of this collection.

Zoltan Nagy, also a member of the same Rotary Club, ran very successful bike drives annually in Frederick. During his tenure as collection manager, RCCC collected 201, 254, and 240 bikes. Fred, fine Zoltan too.

This year the Club moved the collection across town to Triangle Motors. And despite major traffic delays on Route 15, the bike collection had a successful turn out, come hell or high water. A water main break forced a busy Rt. 15 into one lane having some donors racing the clock to make it on time.

The success of this year's collection included a lot of planning and even more outreach. Dick did a tremendous job reaching out to the community and gaining support from a number of businesses and individuals. Almost too many to mention.

Shane Sellers, seen above, delivered a few truck loads of bikes to the collection that he collected over the year at Frederick Community College. Bike shops, Wheelbase, The Bicycle Escape, and 3-Points Cycle kicked in their support and encouragement.

The Frederick News Post and Gazette helped advertise the collection. Zoltan even did a radio interview about Bikes for the World. Several donors credit these news outlets to alerting them about the collection AND introducing them to Bikes for the World.

The Rotaract Club of Hood College and the Interact Club of Thomas Johnson High school all kicked in to help promote the collection and volunteer this past weekend.

RCCC Rotarian Jean-Louis LePage has also been a tremendous help to Dick throughout the year to help make this collection a success. Jean-Louis stored bikes at his downtown sign business and will continue to collect bikes over the next year as well.

So you see it's almost unfair to name just one man for this month's featured volunteer. But in his sophomore effort, Dick doubled the number of bikes collected from last year. His outreach before the collection was unprecedented. And his gratitude and thanks to everyone involved was expressed time and time again.

Congratulations Rotary Club of Carroll Creek, for a job well done, yet again. Keep up the great work!

Give 'em What They Want

2009 loading for Costa Rica

Bikes for the World is in position to ship its 70,000th bike before year's end and we are pretty darn proud of that. One of the things that makes us so successful overseas is that we listen to what our partner programs want and try to ship those types of bikes to those countries/programs.

For example, Costa Rica loves beach cruisers but doesn't want 3 speeds. The African countries are more rural and therefore want more mountain bikes than a more urban project like Barbados.

We get feedback from our partners that includes information pertaining to what their beneficiaries want and need, what the country is capable of sustaining, and what the government will actually allow into the country. We try to make our shipments as close to their requests as possible.


Kate Oberg's computer arriving in Costa Rica

In Costa Rica any used rubber product (not already on a bike), such as the spare tubes and tires we typically use to level out the boards between rows of bicycles, is NOT allowed; the government will confiscate this. That presents a problem with a container packed with over 500+ bikes; therefore, we only send NEW tires to Costa Rica.

One thing they do accept though, is computers. And we do, on special occasions, ship random items like this. Back in 2009, someone by the name of Kate OBERG donated a laptop computer to Costa Rica. And apparently if you have special ties to the Executive Director (she's Keith's daughter) you can actually get a picture of it being off loaded! :)

TERRIFIC program allows Rockville youth to earn bikes

Another factor to consider when shipping bikes overseas, is what spare parts or mechanical skills are needed to keep the bikes working. Walmart makes an 'odd' sized wheel that is 18" in diameter and many countries cannot find supplies for this size bike.

Because we support several youth programs right here in our area we often pull these bikes out to keep here in the local area. Many of these are reconditioned by BfW and donated to the City of Rockville for their TERRIFIC program.

BENN supported bike shop

We always ship spare parts along with a shipment of bikes; this is why we always say your bike doesn't have to be in perfect working condition. The bikes we pull from the Shady Grove recycling center are sometimes in bad shape, but still have working parts on them. So the volunteers that come out for our Thursday night volunteer nights will strip those frames for parts that will be shipped overseas.

This way local folks can work on the bikes once they arrive giving them a valuable marketable skill. It also helps make the program sustainable. Many of our partners provide skills training through their programs. This includes not only bike mechanic skills, but also business skills so they can successfully run a bike shop.

Erika Pimentel  Courtesy Patronato Luz del Ciego

On special occasions BfW has partnered with other groups to ship some unique items. Last year courtesy of Peace Corps Friends Panama and Goodwill Panama a few braillers (typewriters for the blind) accompanied a shipment of bikes to Panama.

Most recently we shipped 152 used water meters, surplus equipment donated by the Arlington County (VA) Department of Public Works, that were delivered via our partner Salvadoran Appropriate Technology Center and to a Peace Corps volunteer in El Salvador.

Sra Luz de Madrid

Most commonly, however, we ship portable sewing machines. One of our biggest annual collections at Otterbein United Methodist Church in Hagerstown often yields a lot of sewing machine donations.

Beneficiaries are often taught sewing techniques through the program and the donated machines not only facilitate this instruction but also help the recipients generate income for their families. BfW has donated over 200 sewing machines to Panama, Costa Rica, and Uganda.

Over the years we have also shipped half a container of books to the Gambia, for local schools, in partnership with Books for International Goodwill, a Rotary Club project. Half a container of wheelchairs, crutches, and canes went to Goodwill Panama through Goodwill Virginia. Given the mission of the Goodwill working with and training individuals with disabilities this shipment was much appreciated and needed. Even the ply board we use for stacking the bicycles is reused and valuable overseas.