By Alan Schultz
Fall 2022 Newsletter
It is that time of year again as we slow down operations for the winter until we resume collections for our Spring 2023 season. Our Fall 2022 season proved to be a short, yet jam packed collections season. We held a total 12 collections, mostly in the month of October, to close out the fall season shipping three containers of bikes and sewing machines and two loads of sewing machines. We sent 72 machines to a new partner in Somalia, and another 72 to our old friends with the Norbert and Friends missions in Tanzania. We also sent out three full containers to FIDESMA in Guatemala, P4P Belize and D.R.V.R in Togo! While we may not have had a long list of collections like years past, we did average about 84 bikes per collection and noticed a large increase of sewing machines. We were able to send our third container just before Thanksgiving, giving us plenty of room to fill up our storage facility come spring.
Moving forward, my number one goal is to strengthen our domestic operations to fill our Spring 2023 season to the brim. I want to operate in more communities throughout the tri-state area to fulfill the extremely high demand for bicycles and sewing machines we have from our friends located around the world. While reaching out to more groups will be key, I also want to strengthen the potential for current groups that already run collections by helping them interact with one another and strengthen the inner P4P community of sponsors. Building a stronger internal network will allow collectors to interact with each other to share valuable insider information on running successful collections.
It finally feels as if we have full potential now with the Pandemic in our rearview mirror. It’s now time to keep the truck moving forward, town to town, picking up as many items as possible. The growth of our domestic sphere will allow us to keep up with our projects overseas. The work we do here has a direct correlation with what we can do with our partners in the developing nations we operate. My fascination with Pedals for Progress has always been this fact. The bike that a donor drops off on a Saturday morning at one of our collections, is the same bike that arrives to a person in need of reliable transportation. This is how we operate; we build a bridge between our donors and someone else thousands of miles away. I am excited to build upon the bridges we have so that we may continue bringing aid to those in need. I encourage you to read more about what we’ve been up to and to join us as we continue our mission of sending use bikes and sewing machines to motivated individuals in the developing world.
