It has been such a tumultuous year. Pedals for Progress and Sewing Peace have been working within our pandemic limitations. It is hard to sum it all up. Maybe it should be “the mission continues”. In our fiscal 2021 we got back to our 2019 production levels. 2022 should be even better.

P4P became 30 years old this year. I have had the immense pleasure of being President of P4P for 30 years. Parts of the job that require physical ability I can no longer have. Over the last 10 years I’ve gotten a lot of help from younger folks but it is time to start a transition to a new team with a much younger, more vibrant President. We have completed three decades but we now must plan for the next few.

Alan Schultz loaded containers all through high school. Went off and got a Masters degree and graduated into the teeth of a pandemic. For over a year he has been managing the loading of the containers: five men, four hours, 20,000 pounds. I was impressed with his management skills with those work crews.

I asked him this spring if he would like a greater role in the organization and he said yes, what would it be, and I suggested it be President. You have seen from the newsletters his excellent writing skills. Another important element of the job is public speaking; his public speaking is as good as if not better than his writing skills. I’ve already mentioned his exceptional skill managing a work crew.

We plan an 18-month transition period that started in April 2021. Alan has been my shadow since then. This fall he’ll follow Gary Michel, going to collections with Gary. We always need multiple people to run collections and no one will teach him how to run collections better than Gary.

Alan has been watching the international shipping arrangements, but I will involve him more in the actual Magic of having a 40-foot container arrive at our loading dock and then reappear halfway around the world, somehow getting through customs in a partner country. In the spring of 2022 he will start moving the paperwork for the containers and I will be his shadow.

Then in the fall of 2022 he’ll begin all the messy details of running a business: insurance companies, bookkeepers, budgets, accountants, federal and state tax authorities, state registrations, commonwealth registrations, bank accounts, …

In December 2022 Alan will be the president. I am still on the board of trustees. I don’t plan on going anywhere and I only live four houses up the street from Alan so he can involve me in whichever way he wishes. It will be a decision the new president has to make but I will be here to help in any way I can.

Pedals for Progress should have been cash positive in fiscal 2021 but we were slightly in the red because we have been carrying an extra payroll burden for 8 months. This is the cost of a succession plan. For fiscal 2022, for the first time ever, our budget shows a −$18,000. P4P is quite self-sufficient but really can’t afford an extra salary spot. Yet that is the cost to continue for decades more. For the next 12 months we are just going to have to accept that added payroll cost so that we can have a smooth transition into the future.

I had not planned on retiring, in part because I didn’t think there was any possibility of anyone else taking on the job. I had assumed we would just fold the organization at some point. When I realized that there was an alternative and a potential candidate who could keep P4P going, it was an opportunity too good to miss.

I want to express my personal deep gratitude for all the support you have given P4P over the years. I want to assure you that the mission has not changed. Alan will continue this vital work for decades to come. Please support him and the organization in the future.