Newtown Rotary Collecting Bikes, Sewing Machines To Ship Overseas

NEWTOWN, PA — In the United States, used bicycles are a dime a dozen. But in an impoverished village in Africa or Latin America, they can be an economic game changer.

A bicycle has the power to literally lift a family out of poverty, said Alan Schultz, the president of Pedals for Progress, a New Jersey-based nonprofit that rescues bicycles forgotten in garages,
basements and sheds and ships them to developing countries where they are put to work powering local economies.

In support of the Pedals for Progress (P4P) mission, the Newtown Rotary Club will again hold a fall used bicycle and sewing machine collection drive on Saturday, October 14 at the parking lot across from Olde Saint Andrew Church, 135 South Sycamore Street in Newtown.

Donated used adult and children’s bikes in repairable condition can be dropped off between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m., rain or shine. In addition, working portable sewing machines also will be accepted.

Bike parts, disassembled bikes, and rusted bikes will not be accepted.

A Rotarian prepares a bike for shipment. (Photo by Jeff Werner)

Used bike donors are asked to chip in a minimum $20 donation to help cover the $40 cost to collect, process, ship, rebuild, and distribute each bicycle to impoverished nations in Latin America and Africa.

Over the past 21 years, the club has collected more than 3,000 used bicycles, according to Rotarian Dr. Jerry Agasar, who has chaired the drive for the past two decades. “I never thought it would be this amazing.”

“Three thousand bicycles. That’s 3,000 lives changed,” said Schultz.

This year, donated bikes in Newtown will be going to Togo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Belize, and Guatemala.

Right now, according to Schultz, millions in third-world nations are stuck in an unending cycle of poverty that could be reversed with a simple donation of a bicycle.

P4P collects donated bikes and sewing machines, reconditions them, and delivers them to villages in developing third-world countries where they are used to transform lives.

Schultz said every family that receives a bike or a sewing machine is lifted out of poverty permanently.

“With a bicycle, they can move five times more and push that product to the road faster,” said Schultz. “If you can fundamentally change the movement of goods and services, you have economic growth,” he said.

“And with a sewing machine, they can create their own business. When I was in Tanzania and I met a woman who was able to put all four of her children through school because of her sewing machine,” said Schultz.

To make it all happen, P4P relies on support from the homefront and from organizations like the Newtown Rotary Club, which has teamed up with Pedals for Progress for the past 21 years to collect bikes and sewing machines.

“The first time we did this we got about 100 bikes,” said Agasar. “I personally thought it would last a year or two getting bikes from the community. But here we are 21 years later and we’re still
collecting.”