Spring 2008 Newsletter
Long before there was Pedals for Progress, there was Ernie Simpson, who collected old bikes, fixed them up, and gave them to poor children in his community at Christmas. He began doing this in the 1950s. Over the years, as word got out and people donated more and more bikes, Ernie faced a situation that we’re very familiar with here at Pedals for Progress—an abundance of used bikes. His barn was overflowing with them. Needing a means to give them away, he found us. That was in 1996.
Ernie initially gave us fifty-five bikes. These days, he’s our largest single source of bikes, collecting close to a thousand a year for us. More recently, he and one of his friends began refurbishing sewing machines for our sister project, Sewing Peace. Just like he does with bikes, he provides us with more sewing machines than anyone else. And in addition to putting the machines in working order, he has compiled a library of instruction manuals for all the makes and models that come his way. Ernie includes one with every sewing machine he gives us.
Typically, the bikes we receive come to us as-is, needing some work, and always needing to be prepped for shipping. The bikes we get from Ernie, on the other hand, are practically as good as new. He and his helpers take the time to fix each bike and put it in good working order, even replacing parts where needed, then they prep each bike for shipping. As if Ernie doesn’t do enough already, he also raises a monetary donation with each bike—just like we do at our collections—to help us with shipping.
Ernie’s community service extends well beyond his work with bikes. He taught machining at the Paradise School for Boys, where they named the machine shop after him. He also taught lawn mower maintenance and landscaping from his shop in Gettysburg. And during the 1960s, he established a local rehabilitation program for juvenile offenders.
In 1997, we honored Ernie with our Pedal Wrench Award. But we aren’t the only ones to recognize Ernie’s altruism and service to his community. In 2002, he was given the Lifetime Peacemaker Award from the Interfaith Center for Peace and Justice in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, his hometown. And in 2005, the Rotary Club of Gettysburg presented him with the Dwight D. Eisenhower Award. In addition to these accolades, Ernie was named a Paul Harris Fellow, received an award from the Adams County Bar Association, and received citations sponsored by Pennsylvania Senator Terry Punt and Representative Steve Maitland.
Ernie’s devotion to helping others is remarkable, and inspiring. That he’s 87 years old, and working as hard as he does for us and others, makes his story even more remarkable and inspiring. He’s touched numerous lives with his kindness and generosity, and we’re grateful that he chose to help us— thousands of families overseas live better lives because of him.
[This is a lightly edited version of the original PDF article from the Spring 2008 InGear newsletter.]