Peggy Revell
Give old bikes a new lease on life. Create jobs. Help lift people out of poverty.
That’s the aim of district residents who have been busy collecting unwanted bicycles to send to Africa as part of the “Bicycles for Humanity” project.
“It’s a great program,” said Jim Scheibler, who lives just north of Emo and has been working to collect bikes across the district.
Once collected, the bicycles are transported to Thunder Bay, where a local “Bicycles for Humanity” chapter will take them apart, fix them up, and then load them into a container to be shipped to Africa.
There, the bikes, among many things, will be used to help create jobs and provide environmentally-friendly transportation.
For Scheibler, collecting the bicycles has been a bit of a family project. His mother takes the calls from people in the district while his brother, Frank, delivers the collected bikes to Thunder Bay in a half-ton truck.
“In the spring we sent 165,” noted Scheibler.
This time around, they have more than 110 bikes, collected from Rainy River to Fort Frances to Nestor Falls and some from even as far north as Red Lake.
“There’s so many bikes here, it’s just amazing how many—they’re still in great shape but they end up in the dump!” Scheibler said.
Bikes collected through “Bicycles for Humanity,” which has chapters in Canada, the United States, Australia, and the Netherlands, have been sent to communities in countries such as Namibia, South Africa, Malawi, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Kenya, and Uganda.
Each shipment the Thunder Bay chapter sends has roughly 530 bicycles, along with an inventory of spare parts to help keep the bikes maintained.
Upon arrival in Africa, the bikes then are given to a small group of five or six people within that community, who have received training through the Bicycle Empowerment Network (BEN) on how to maintain the bicycles and run a business.
The container which the bicycles were shipped in is converted into a shop, with 90 percent of the bicycles and the spare parts becoming inventory.
The program estimates that for every 100 bicycles sent, one full-time job is created.
Meanwhile, 10 percent of the bicycles are given away free of charge to teachers and medical workers so they can travel greater distances to serve and help their community.
“The ones with baskets on are just super great; the nurses use them and the teachers,” noted Scheibler. “Apparently a nurse can see four times as many patients in a day as she could have if she was just walking.”
“And apparently also, there’s a lot more children making it to school because it’s faster to bike,” he added.
“One bike makes a difference of a lifetime to the community,” echoed Fort Frances resident Val Calder, who has been working locally to collect bicycles for the program.
“For the medical workers, for teachers, for a family—when they don’t have to walk miles and miles and miles, and instead they can get on a bike.”
For Calder, a story in the Thunder Bay newspaper inspired her to start collecting the bicycles with the assistance of the local Church of the Holy Spirit.
They’ve ended up co-ordinating with Scheibler to help transport the bikes to Thunder Bay.
“Last year we collected around 27 bikes,” said Calder, noting the church also has made donations to help cover gas costs, alongside some other donations from community members.
This time around, they’ve been able to collect 60-70 bikes locally.
“And it’s just been a fun, fun experience, talking with people and going to different homes and talking about the ‘Bicycles for Humanity’ and what a wonderful thing it is,” enthused Calder.
“I think it’s amazing,” agreed Pat Ash, who has been working alongside Calder to collect the unwanted bikes here and has been storing them at her home.
“It’s such a good cause,” she remarked. “You see bikes laying around all over the place and people just throwing them away here—it’s just sad.”
Even if a bike can’t be used, it’s parts can be, noted Ash, saying they’ve collected tires and wheels to be sent along.
Or what can’t be used at all is sold for scrap metal to help finance the project.
And the bicycles aren’t just helping out people in Africa. Some types of bikes—old Roadsters, 10-speeds, and antiques—are not appropriate for conditions they would face in Africa, or would be too difficult to get parts for if sent over.
So instead, these bikes are repaired and kept locally, donated to Thunder Bay organizations such as the Salvation Army, Rotary Shelter House, and Fay Peterson that help out people in need.
Or income for the project is generated by selling the bikes to Lakehead University students, who then can use them as environmentally-friendly transportation throughout the city.
Collecting the bikes also has meant Fort Frances itself has seen a clean-up. Calder said she’s walked the ditches and found wheels, frames, chains, handle bars, and “just anything” that they then can add to the pile of bike parts to be used.
“It’s so exciting, and it’s just so much fun to take what people aren’t using anymore or just taking up space, to be able to [have it used again],” she reasoned.
With another shipment expected to head out to Thunder Bay soon, the program still is accepting bikes, which can be dropped off at 213 Crowe Ave.
Or people can contact Calder at 274-5213 or Scheibler at 487-1425.
To learn more about the organization itself, visit www.bicycles-for-humanity.org
