Teaching By Doing

Young student in the Philippines

"The idea of expanding students' global awareness of life in developing countries where children are unable to attend school or get to the doctor because of the lack of personal transportation is an important concept.

"The whole notion of our throw-away society was also something we wanted to convey as well as simple activism and becoming involved in service to others," Ted Haynie, retired school principal Calvert County MD.

Haynie organized a collective effort among Calvert County schools to collect bikes for Bikes for the World and participate in a 'live' load as part of a school wide service project. The project collected over 600 bikes and taught students the value of affordable transportation, community service, and recycling efforts.

Students at Irving Middle School, Springfield VA

Bikes for the World  regularly offers a variety of activities that engage students and teach them valuable lessons and skills while earning them service hours and connecting them with people in need around the globe.

Whether students are working with us to collect bikes or load them for partners overseas, they are learning to work with their hands and how to work together to complete a common goal. They are also learning about our beneficiaries, how the bikes improve their lives, and why their work with us is so important.

Family in Honduras

Each bike donated through Bikes for the World often benefits four people. Because of the work our volunteers do in compacting bikes during collections and loadings, BfW is able to pack our donated containers tight with bikes, increasing the value of our shipments by including even more bicycles per donation.

Many beneficiaries overseas are also using these donated bikes to help students get to school and stay in school to graduate. The bicycle is helping the students get to school faster, leaving more time for homework and house chores.

Our student volunteers at home can easily identify with the kids we are helping overseas and this project shows them how their old bikes are changing lives.

Chesterbrook Elementary, McLean VA

While students can contact us directly to earn service hours on their own, many teachers volunteer to help lead their students in this process. Some schools hold bike collections right on their campuses and some bring the kids to our warehouse in Arlington to help with a loading.

This past weekend we were joined in our warehouse by Eastern High School out of DC and Chesterbrook Elementary from McLean VA. The schools worked together to prep bikes for donation, organize our warehouse for upcoming loadings, and finish the container for Costa Rica.

Teacher Sarah Miller instructing students in the warehouse

Maria Pike, teacher at Chesterbrook, and Sarah Miller, from Eastern HS, organized warehouse work sessions with BfW to help students gain service hours for graduation. It was a way to get students involved while teaching them about the importance of affordable transportation and the value of recycling.

This effort is an exercise in leading by example. Miller knows the value a bike brings overseas and she wanted her students to learn how they could make a bigger impact while earning service hours.

Throughout the session, Pike noticed her students embracing the tools and skills involved in prepping bikes. Getting kids comfortable around a bicycle will give them confidence on the road as they begin riding on our trails and streets here at home.

Teachers at Colvin Run manage regular bike collections

In fact, teachers tell us this often. It's not just using tools or even working on the bikes, kids involved with this project often seem shy with the activity when they first start but are soon experts at removing pedals and using the right tools for the right job. This is something that will stay with them for life.

"I feel more responsibility than ever before. I feel impelled to spend more of my time giving back to the community and volunteering whenever I can. I hope that the recipients, who receive the bikes I load, will find the same freedom that invigorates me when I ride," Stone Ridge student volunteer Allie Arinaga.

If you are interested in setting up a collection or organizing a group to help with a loading in our warehouse, please contact office@bikesfortheworld.org.

Featured Volunteer: Mechanics For a Day...Or Two

Burgundy students

This month Bikes for the World recognizes Burgundy Farm Country Day School in Alexandria Virginia.

Bikes for the World has worked with over 70 schools since 2005. Every year we work with a couple dozen schools who host bike collections with us. About a dozen more come out to our warehouse to help us load bikes that will be shipped overseas.

Burgundy is one of the very few schools who has worked with us on collections AND loadings, giving their students the whole picture of what we do at Bikes for the World.

Keith loading up bikes

Over the years Burgundy has consistently done a bike collection with us every fall. In 2013 they made a goal to collect 50 bikes during their collection. They usually collect around 35 annually.

They stunned Director Keith Oberg, who showed up in his van (that holds about 35 bikes) when the school exceeded their goal and collected almost double their normal amount. Good thing Keith brought the trailer! They managed to load all 60 bikes collected that day by throwing some on top of the van.

Burgundy at 2013 collection

"This is an out-of-the-box recycling initiative that also helps foster among our students an appreciation for cultural and social values, sharing an interesting perspective about diverse needs and cultures," said Doug Fishman, Sustainability Coordinator at Burgundy and Bikes for the World collection manager.

"So many of us who volunteer at the collection take for granted our own access to transportation, or even the fact that we're able to collect so many bicycles. We're giving a second life to old bikes, simultaneously improving lives for people in need."

Burgundy at 2014 loading

Not too many students join us for both a collection and loading. It's a big commitment from a school to provide both of these community service projects for their students, especially when one of them is at our warehouse.

There's actually a pretty good chance some of the bikes they collected last November ended up
in the container we loaded with them in January. We can't always promise where a bike is going to end up except when we are carrying it onto the truck! So these guys know those bikes are heading to Panama.

"Bikes for the World looks forward to working with Burgundy every year. The kids are really into it; they like the mechanics of it as well as what's behind it. The students found these bikes for us and now they see where they are going. That's pretty cool," said Yvette Hess, Bikes for the World Outreach Coordinator.

"Participating in this program allows children to connect personally to a cause. We hope they see volunteering is fun. But we love showing them the difference they are making for kids just like them miles (and oceans) away."