By David Schweidenback
Fall 2023 Newsletter

The Pedals for Progress Mission: To empower sustainable economic development by recycling bicycles and sewing machines from the US and shipping them to motivated people in the developing world.

Our goal is to make bicycles available in areas of the world where they did not exist or are in very short supply. In order to accomplish this goal we have to find overseas partners capable of distributing our bicycles effectively. When you bring a commodity into a marketplace, capitalism is the most effective method of distribution. Yes, we sell or our partners sell every bike sent overseas. Just because you sell something doesn’t mean you have to charge a lot. But the act of selling brings order to the act of distribution. It also brings the funds that help pay to ship the bikes overseas and run the distribution facility. Lastly human nature: people take much better care of things that they pay for.

Our partner overseas needs a storefront, some mechanics, an accountant, sales people, and a manager. By selling our bikes at low cost they can still manage to employ those people and help pay shipping costs. Getting two shipments of bikes per year means that there is always work for the mechanics who need to be available for repairs down the road.

There is no way to individually choose who should get a bike and who shouldn’t. That is accomplished through the marketplace. It could be that the poorest of the poor might not make the best use of a bicycle. My focus has always been on working adults and children needing to go to school. In a container of bikes there are usually no two bikes alike. Consumers want to choose among the bicycles because they need the right size, color, type of bike. There is also a great difference in the quality of the bicycles. The most expensive bikes we ship can be sold at higher cost to the working middle class so those funds can be used to subsidize the lesser quality bikes that the poor can afford. Every worker mobilized increases the productivity of society and a rising economic tide does raise all boats.

Pedals for Progress is cash poor, item rich. Unfortunately, we have never been excellent at raising funds, but we excel in raising in-kind value. We collect hundreds of thousands of dollars of sewing machines and bicycles every year and transfer that wealth to the poorest countries of the world. Bikes and sewing machines generate income. So not only have we enriched our customers with the value of the items but each of those items will go on to create more revenue.

Pedals for Progress will enter its 34th year in February. We have survived the economy going up and down, the great recession, the pandemic, and the retirement of the founder. With the brilliant energetic young new leadership of Alan Schultz as President, I am confident that the organization will continue to deliver hundreds of thousands of dollars of material aid overseas annually.