By:Angela Marshall
Amy Slavin still remembers her first bike and all the joy it brought her. She hates seeing bikes left at the curb for the dump truck, knowing there are still good years left in them and children whose families can't afford to buy them bikes. For years, the Rockville Centre mother of two has thought there must be something she could do to stop this waste.
She was right. After some research, Slavin discovered Pedals for Progress, a nonprofit organization that saves bikes from America's landfills and sends them to needy people overseas. What is abandoned in America can mean the difference between an education and ignorance or food and starvation in a third-world country.
Slavin and a group of Rockville Centre volunteers are holding a bike drive for Pedals for Progress at St. Mark's United Methodist Church, 200 Hempstead Ave., on two consecutive Sundays, Oct. 3 and 10. Bikes of any size, from tots' tricycles to adults' recumbents and tandems, will be accepted.
Pedals for Progress collects more than 11,000 bikes each year, and ships them to developing countries in Latin America, Africa and the Pacific islands. The bikes are reconditioned by partner agencies in these countries and distributed at low cost to poor working adults. The bikes provide them with reliable transportation for commuting to work, transporting produce to market or accessing health care.
AnneMarie Rolls, office manager for Pedals for Progress, said the bikes have a big impact on the lives of those who receive them. For starters, she said, they can help a family boost its income. A woman with a bike can put her produce in its baskets and pedal to a market instead of balancing a basket on her head and walking. She can carry more and get her work done faster, giving her more time at home with her family, Rolls said.
The bikes are also sometimes the only way children in these countries can get to school. Schools are often miles from outlying villages, making it impossible for children to get to them every day on foot, but with a bike, a child can do it. The bikes are also used by doctors to reach patients in remote areas who cannot travel to bigger villages.
Slavin, a petite ball of energy, could not contain her enthusiasm for the project as she discussed it Monday. She said that it is the perfect way to get her children involved in volunteerism. Her son, Jeffrey, is a seventh-grader at South Side Middle School, and helping with the bike drive is part of his bar mitzvah preparations. Slavin's daughter, Hannah, a fifth-grader at Watson School, is also involved.
Slavin, a member of the Social Action Committee at Central Synagogue, said she tries to find some volunteer project for her family to work on every year. She said it is important for people to learn the importance of giving while they are young.
She is also excited because the event has been embraced by a diverse group of people in the village, attracting volunteers from Central Synagogue, St. Mark's United Methodist Church and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. She said events like this help create a greater sense of community within the village. She hopes the bike drive will become an annual event.
"It has been my dream," Slavin said of salvaging unwanted bikes for further use. "A bike has a very, very long life. Adults don't realize bikes sitting in their garages can really help."
The drive will also provide bikes to community members who express a need for them. Anyone who cannot, for whatever reason, provide bikes for their own children should speak to Slavin.
It costs $30 to collect, process, ship, rebuild and distribute each bike. It is requested that a $10 donation to offset shipping costs accompany each bike. All cash and material donations are tax deductible. A receipt will be given to donators at the drive.
The event will take place from 1 to 3 p.m. on Oct. 3 and 1 to 4 p.m. on Oct. 10. St. Mark's will also hold a Pumpkin Patch on the second date. The Pumpkin Patch, which features a variety of pumpkins ranging from $2 to $55, will start on Saturday, Oct. 9 and be open Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to dusk and Sundays from noon to dusk until Halloween.
Pedals for Progress welcomes donations of tools, especially wrenches, for the overseas distribution sites. The group also collects and distributes sewing machines. For more information about the drive, contact Slavin at (516) 766-7980; Marion Weber, of St. Mark's, at 867-0494; or Meg Fielding, of Holy Trinity, at 536-8393. The Pedals for Progress Web site is www.p4p.org.
