Newtown Rotary Collecting Bikes, Sewing Machines To Ship Overseas

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

A bicycle has the power to 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 26 at the parking lot across from Olde Saint Andrew Church, 135 South Sycamore Street in Newtown.

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

Donors are asked to chip in a minimum $20 donation per bike to help cover the $52 cost to collect, process, ship, rebuild, and distribute each bicycle to impoverished nations in Latin America and Africa.

Over the past 22 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, and Tanzania in Africa and Belize and Guatemala in Central America.

Biking to school in Africa. (Pedals for Progress)

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 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 22 years to collect bikes and sewing machines.

“The first time we did this we got about 100 bikes,” said Agasar. “I thought it would last a year or two getting bikes from the community. But here we are 22 years later and we’re still collecting.”

Last year the club collected more than 250 bicycles and portable sewing machines. "Our goal this year is to top that number," said Agasar.