Turning Talent Into Triumph

We are writers. We are graphic designers. We are musicians. We are actors. We are dancers. We are painters. We are photographers. WE Are Artists. We ARE Regional Lead School of the Arts.

These students are nurturing their talents and honing their crafts. Some want to use these skills in their careers; some want to come back and teach; some will go on to college; ALL will inspire the world through art.

The Regional Lead School of the Arts (RLSAA) was established in 2004 to help encourage and educate young artists. Today, they are inviting back graduates to continue their educations.

Previously, education in the Philippines was structured so that the academic year ended in what we know as their sophomore year. Those going on to college sometimes had to sit out a few years before being accepted. Because youth are not legally allowed to work until they are 18 this left a significant gap in their lives. 

RLSAA, last year, became one of the roll out schools in the Department of Education's new effort to close the gap by adding the final two years of education to their academic structure.

In addition to increasing the value of their education to students currently enrolled in school, this  also opened the door to previously graduated students to come back and further their educations.

Kwin graduated from RLSAA in 2008. He is now 22 years old and just re-enrolled in school. Kwin loves to dance and he is excited to continue his education in hopes of becoming a teacher to share this passion with his students.

Kwin lives with his father, grandfather, and four brothers and sisters. His commute to school included a 50 minute jeepney ride that cost $1each way. His bike saves him time and money, valuable resources to his family, where Kwin is a huge asset.

Kwin was selected as a bike beneficiary by Bikes for the Philippines to help make the transition back to school easier and lessen the impact on his family.

Thea graduated from RLSAA in 2014 and is now enrolled in college. Thea was among the first beneficiaries to graduate from RLSAA and we are proud to report...she is still riding a bike!

In fact, Thea now works at Skylark's Bike Shop where she picks up a couple shifts a week helping out in the shop. This extra income helps her family with school expenses while she continues studying fine art at the University of Rizal System in Angono.

Thea's boss, Carlo, has offered to pay her school fees next year.

Juni also graduated from RLSAA last year. Juni did not receive a bike through our program, but our bikes had an impact on him and in return he also left an impact on the program. Juni entered a logo redesign contest with Bikes for the Philippines and the current new logo is based on his design.

Juni is now enrolled in a training program at MFI Foundation where he is learning about automobile and motorcycle technology. Berjaiya/Mazda corporation is helping to make this possible.

Juni hopes to become an architect some day and return to RLSAA to train students. 

Rodelyn Learns to Ride

The region of San Pablo, Laguna in the Philippines is picturesque and fertile; home to many orchids, coconut groves, lanzones, and rambutan.

It's a short distance from the hustle and bustle of Makati and Manila. Nestled between three mountain ranges, its cool climate makes it favored among tourists and features lush landscapes.

In addition to tourism, the main economic activity among locals is farming.

Rodelyn in center in blue

Last year, our Philippine partner Bikes for the Philippines provided bikes to several young students living in this region. Sto. Nino Baloc Elementary School was the first ever beneficiary elementary school in our Bikes for Education project.

Many of our projects in the Philippines focus on bringing students who dropped out of school back into the education system or keeping those in danger of not graduating enrolled in school. This time we hoped our bikes would help bridge the gap between elementary school and high school, a time when many students are forced to choose between their families and education.

Rodelyn's brother (in red) also learns about bikes

Florence Rementilla is a teacher at Sto. Nino Baloc in San Pablo and she was involved in our pilot bike program in the school. With only four teachers and a student population of over 160 kids Florence certainly has her hands full during the school day.

"A lot of people say nobody gets rich from teaching. But wealth is not always on the material things. When your students appreciate you and they eventually become successful, that's my definition of wealth.

"The best part of being a teacher is seeing my former students, some from 20 years ago, and they are now doctors and engineers. Some of them now have their own cars!"

Rodelyn Glorioso (left)

Perhaps one of those students will be Rodelyn Glorioso who just graduated sixth grade. Rodelyn and her younger brother were recently featured in a documentary on the bike project in her school.  Her parents are very proud of her and hope to see her continue her education through high school.

The Glorioso parents are modest livestock farmers neither of whom graduated school. Often times in families where parents didn't graduate, the emphasis on education is compromised when time is tight. Not so in this family.
The Gloriosos are focused on school and hoping for something more for their children.

In the documentary you can see Rodelyn riding and caring for her borrowed bicycle, which knocked her school commute time down to 30 minutes, leaving her more time to care for her younger brother and help around the house. Bikes often ease the pressures of time consuming commutes among families struggling to make ends meet and who rely on help from their kids around the house.

Bikes for the Philippines provided training to students of Sto. Nino Baloc Elementary last fall. They learned how to safely ride their bikes and do minor repairs. They participated in community rides and took pride in cleaning their bikes after a long ride.

Kids washing and greasing their bikes after a ride

Many of the beneficiaries' families are farmers and some of their riding is 'off-road'. Bikes for the Philippines puts emphasis on handling skills, especially balance for those new learners. They are also shown the basics about brakes, changing a flat and oiling the moving parts of a bike.

These skills will prove to be life long and help in many ways in years to come. Whether it be in farm machinery care and maintenance,  transporting goods to market, or simply balancing life and responsibility, a bicycle is a strong guiding factor in any student's life.

Boys Will Be Boys

Pinelands Creative Workshop (PCW) began as a way to engage and educate some of the most under-served residents of Barbados. Situated on the border of the Pinelands community, PCW was poised to make a difference and change lives for the better.

PCW's initial efforts mainly included a focus on theatre and the arts. In this way, the organization was able to enlist the community to participate in productions while exploring topics of the day in a unique and engaging way.

Since its beginning in the seventies, PCW has undergone many transformations over the decades to include skills and life training programs for many residents in the community. They now offer computer classes, self defense classes, career preparedness programs, life skills activities, and summer youth camps in addition to their original focus on arts and sports.

In 2005, PCW added bike mechanics to that growing list of training options. By partnering with Bikes for the World, PCW also added a little capital to the program. After fixing up our donated bikes, PCW sold refurbished bikes at a low cost to the community which helped fund their growing Meals on Wheels program.

More notably, this newly added bike program helped make PCW much more relevant by adding an important development platform for youth. Boys were lining up to join this program, earn a little pocket money, learn about bikes, and gain experience using tools while learning a skill.

Zidane, Michausa, Nathaniel, and Stephen

Zidane, Michausa, and Nathaniel joined the bike program a couple years ago. They are trained by Ronald and Stephen who see the program has much more to offer than just revenue generated to help fund programs:

There are softer and more long term benefits for the young men we work with. They learn about respect for people and property, about managing time and finishing a job in the best way they can, they learn about conflict resolution and they learn to take pride in their work and after all the work is done they feel proud to see a person walk out with a bike that they worked on.

Danny at work

Before boys had this outlet at PCW, Ronald says he often saw fights breaking out between the adolescents. Now they can direct their energy into something more productive. 

Danny’s mom was especially impressed with her son’s enthusiasm and dedication during the time he was with the bicycle initiative; she confessed that he was excited about going to work and that his new-found responsibility infected the rest of his life. He was more active at home and around the house and he was ready and willing to take on new tasks. It was like the experience matured him, he was a “serious” young man.

From Wheels To Meals

Supporting diverse programs is one of the ways Bikes for the World is able to affect so many lives around the world in a multitude of ways. Our bike project provides affordable transportation, creates jobs, encourages education, and supports adult and youth programs beyond just bikes.

One of our main criteria for partners receiving bikes is that the project or organization is sustainable. Because our donated bikes are shipped 'as is' many of them are in need of repair and/or parts when they arrive. A majority of our partner organizations provide training and actual mechanic jobs to disadvantaged community members who fix and maintain these donated bikes, creating jobs to help support their families.

Bikes are then sold at a low cost to residents within the community who are in need of valuable transportation. Money generated through the program helps support the mechanics and project. More often than not, the surplus revenue is reinvested in the organization which in turn benefits the entire community.

In Barbados, our bike program is helping to support many aspects of Pinelands Creative Workshop. Funds generated through the bike project have helped offset administrative and program costs within the organization. PCW itself focuses on positive change within the community of Pinelands. Programs focused on the arts such as theatre, dance and music provide an educational, creative outlet for youth after school. Additionally, PCW offers career training, professional and undergraduate education, and general support to its struggling neighbors.

Sophia Greaves-Broome, Special Projects Director with the Marcus Garvey Resource and Development Centre (MGRDC) the Training Arm of the PCW states, “The bicycle project has allowed the MGRDC to deliver quality and relevant programs at the community level responding to expressed needs of over 3000 residents who can be categorized as either unemployed, underemployed, unskilled, vulnerable and/or living in poverty.  Furthermore the injection of support has added considerable social value to the community and the empowerment of beneficiaries."

One such program supported through the bike project in Barbados is the Meals on Wheels program, which provides meals to elderly, shut-ins, and disabled individuals in and around the Pine. With funds generated by bicycle sales, PCW is able to pay cooks, purchase disposable food containers, and contribute to the overall cost of running the vehicles to collect and provide food.

Shelly Durant-Forde, Financial Manager of PCW had this to say, “While funding is received through other projects the bicycle project is the only project that has been consistent and dependable . Many days we have been able to provide lunch, bus-fare, gas, school books or some small contributions to persons in the community who had nowhere else to turn but the doors of the Workshop.  Without the bicycle project this would be impossible."

Educating and Uplifting a Community Through Art

The Pinelands Creative Workshop program in Barbados was one of the original Bikes for the World partners. We started shipping to this organization in May of 2005 when we first formed as BfW. Since then we have donated over 11,000 bikes to help support the efforts of this community focused group. This month we will load our 24th container of bikes for Barbados.

 “We wanted theatre to be able to reflect the issues of our people. We were using theatre for a purpose – to educate, entertain and inform," Rodney Grant Director Pinelands Creative Workshop, Barbados.

Pinelands Creative Workshop (PCW) was first established in the mid 70s and has grown and adapted over the years to meet the needs of the community it serves. That community, affectionately known as "The Pines", lies two miles east of Bridgetown, the capital and largest city on the island. 

While Barbados itself is the wealthiest of the east Caribbean islands, the Pinelands is actually the largest low income community in Barbados. The community consists of mainly under-skilled young people and is characterized by high levels of unemployment. At one time, The Pines was viewed by many as a community with no future.

PCW was created to introduce a creative and productive outlet to a community mired in this negative perception. Phase one focused on cultural productions aimed at teaching and engaging the community.  Over the years they added sporting activities and eventually morphed into an even more productive organization by expanding their range of activities, which included the bike workshop BfW now supports. 

Today's PCW operates around its strong cultural development work which in turn provides cultural, commercial, economic, and social skills training to the community it continues to serve.

Rodney Grant has been with PCW for over 40 years now and was instrumental in its evolution into the organization it is today. By first telling the story of how Rodney came to PCW is essentially outlining the program's first success story.

“I would never forget one Sunday morning when Michael Newton caught me. He used to go and fix tyres and he saw me and told me to come with him. He put me on his motorcycle and took me down to Roebuck Street to fix some tyres with him. From then he developed an interest in me and used to let me tag along with him wherever he went. By tagging along with Michael, I kind of shifted my focus from doing negative things and tried to focus on community development and planning,” Grant said.

Michael ran the Pinelands Social Cultural Youth Group and reached out to a young Rodney who was on the cusp of straying down the wrong path. Michael signed Rodney up for the soccer team and introduced him to the positive change outreach could have on a community.

Rodney incorporated this into a life calling and helped form PCW a few years later. Through its original focus on dance, theatre, and arts, PCW has educated and uplifted a community in desperate need of hope. The organization continued to grow over the years to expand education programs, provide micro-business training, and even generate employment. The Pinelands community continues on its path of recovery using the resources from its uplifted residents thanks to the efforts of Rodney and Pinelands Creative Workshop.

Learn more about how the bike project supports this growing effort in Barbados...

Featured Volunteer: #CEBGivesBack

May marks a favorite month around Bikes for the World and it's not because it's Bike Month. For one week in May CEB, a best practice insight and technology company based in Rosslyn, trades keyboards and cell phones for wrenches and cans of WD40 to join us in the warehouse for some sweat, smiles, and manual labor. They claim BfW is an employee favorite and it's no secret the feeling is mutual.

This is the third year CEB and BfW partnered up for what is now known as CEB's Global Impact Week. For one week employees give back to their communities by engaging in community service projects around the world. In 2014 we scheduled one day with CEB, but it was so popular in 2015 they asked to do more. We signed them up for three days last year and this year we stretched it to four!

During their tenure with us, CEB employees have loaded five containers of bikes heading to partners in Costa Rica, Kenya, Barbados, Ghana, and El Salvador. CEB helped us donate 2,363 bikes to these diverse projects stretching across the world. During their service with us, they also helped prep hundreds of bikes for future shipments.

Last year  CEB assisted in loading a container that was donated to Costa Rican partner MiBici, part of FINCA Costa Rica. That shipment of bikes was delivered to Upala in northern Costa Rica.

FINCA Costa Rica helps deliver our large shipments of bikes to many small communities all over the country, sometimes splitting up the containers to serve many community groups per shipment. Because of the proximity to the coast and beaches, all of our beach cruisers, which are very popular in Costa Rica, are saved and sent to this group.

This almost new red cruiser, loaded by CEB, was delivered to Yorleny and Pedro. They also got a bike for their eight year old son Kevin. Yorleny now rides to school with her son saving the family a lot of time.

This year's CEB crew first loaded a container for Village Bicycle Project in Ghana then moved on to a second destined for CESTA El Salvador. We loaded 911 bikes during CEB's Global Impact Week.

Nearly 4,000 CEB staff members provided support to charitable organizations in 87 cities spanning 29 countries around the world during this year's annual Global Impact Week. As part of the enterprise-wide community service program, CEB employees collectively dedicated approximately 18,500 volunteer hours throughout the week.
 

About CEB:

CEB is a best practice insight and technology company. In partnership with leading organizations around the globe, we develop innovative solutions to drive corporate performance. CEB equips leaders at more than 10,000 companies with the intelligence to effectively manage talent, customers, and operations. CEB is a trusted partner to nearly 90% of the Fortune 500 and FTSE 100, and more than 70% of the Dow Jones Asian Titans. More at cebglobal.com.

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.