Ghost of Midnight

How to collect 145 bikes and 55 sewing machines in Vermont

From FPF member Joanne… Last week we held the 17th annual used bike and sewing machine collection for Pedals for Progress (Yep – PFP).

We’re a group of mostly former Peace Corps volunteers who hold this annual event to send practical technology to self-help projects on 4 continents. Since 1999, we’ve sent over 3,000 bikes and 150 sewing machines to partners in Vietnam, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Ghana, among others.

We do not have a budget for marketing (or for anything else) and we count on getting the word out through workplace bulletin boards, organizations, churches, etc.  We always beg and hope for a little blurb in the Burlington Free Press. But our main focus this year was to ask friends to post a blurb on their Front Porch Forum.  Our goal was to get it on at least 10 – 15  neighborhood/town forums in Chittenden County.

This year, not a word appeared in the Burlington Free Press.  But we collected 145 bikes and 55 sewing machines!  We asked – as we always do – how people heard about the opportunity to donate.  And the single most frequent answer – by a long shot – was “My neighborhood Front Porch Forum.”

SO, PFP sends love and thanks to FPF.  My husband and I are monthly FPF Supporting Members, and we encourage our friends and contacts to donate as well.