Wheels for the World:
Peacemaker Award awaits Ernie Simpson for efforts in
sending bicycles to Third World countries.
From the Sunday, April 28, 2002 Edition of the
Hanover Evening Sun, Hanover, PA

Evening Sun Photo by Josh Ritchie

Ernie Simpson of Straban Township struggles to put a wheel back on a bicycle
after replacing the bike's chain and tireat his reconditioning shop. Simpson reconditions
old bikes and then sends them to South America through Pedals for Progress.

By LAURA GIOVANELLI, Evening Sun Reporter

With a creak and a moan, the weathered wooden barn door groans open. The staccato clicking of bicycle chain crosses the hay-covered floor. Smeared and sure hands lead the bike over to a long row of 10-speeds, their clattering gears silent and handlebars turned to the side.

Ernie Simpson has finished another bike. It began this morning a banged and bruised
sunshine yellow 10-speed, unsteady on its kickstand outside of Simpson's Straban Township shop.

After 30 minutes in Simpson's care, it re-emerges, brake pads replaced and gears lubricated,
rust removed and sporting a brand new rear tire. The pedals are taped to the frame, and the
handle bars are turned to the side this bike is going places, nestled wheel-to-wheel with about
500 traveling companions in a crate to Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Barbados.

"Yeah, they pack'em in there like hot dogs," said Simpson. He ought to know. With the help of
donations and a handful of assistants, Simpson sends more than 600 bikes a year to Third World countries. The 81-year-old's long love affair with bicycles began about 50 years ago. He was heading home from his machine shop in Straban Township and noticed two bicycles abandoned in a roadside junk heap. "It bothered me somehow," said Simpson. He ended up taking the bikes home. He thought he'd fix them up, give them to children. Five decades and thousands of single-speeds, cruisers and mountain bikes later, that's still his idea. It's just gotten bigger.

Simpson used to concentrate on children's bikes. The refurbished toys always were welcome at
the annual Holiday Bureau's giveaway in Gettysburg. But for every tricycle and training wheel he
received, he found himself with a couple more adult bikes. For years, they accumulated in his barn.

Then, about four years ago, a local bike enthusiast, Bob Nordvall, discovered Pedals for Progress. The international non-profit was founded by a former Peace Corps volunteer and sends reconditioned bicycles to Third World countries, where they provide transportation to people who otherwise have no way to get around. On the often muddy roads of the Third World, a bicycle is the most reliable method
of transportation.

Nordvall raised $500 to empty the barn of 50 bikes it takes about $10 to ship each bike. He thought that was the end of it, the one-time act of a good Samaritan. But the bikes kept coming, unearthed from garages and musty basements and from local police forces who find them abandoned.

Today, Simpson and Nordvall actively solicit both bikes and donations. "We try to keep (Simpson) in bikes," said Nordvall. "If he doesn't get enough in, he gets nervous."

Last year, Norvall raised $6,000 to fund more than 600 bikes Simpson reconstructed that's about 7 percent of the more than 9,000 bikes Pedals for Progress shipped in 2001. "We don't worry about cosmetics. (These bikes) are their only means of transportation. These people need a workhorse," Simpson said. Because of his efforts, the Interfaith Center for Peace and Justice in Gettysburg will award Simpson this year's Peacemaker Award Monday. The award, said Nordvall, is not necessarily for local residents who are mediators but "who do the kind of things that make the world a better place," he said.

"If you ask me what Christianity is about, Ernie is about as good as an example. He is a beloved
man," said Nordvall. Simpson's shop a low, white building surrounded by bicycles of every shape and size sits along Good Intent Road in Straban Township. Next to his shop, a dark green Schwinn rests against the long and low banana seat of a baby blue cruiser. The delicate bodies of light 10-speeds are stacked five or six deep. Inside, Simpson is bent over a metallic blue frame, giving the 10-speed a thorough checkup.

"Some of them can give you a fit. Oh, now there's trouble. That derailer's loose," he whistles, as he prods and pokes the bike back to life with his collection of small bike wrenches. Maneuvering among the thin spokes of a bicycle's skeleton is a delicate operation and Simpson does it without the full use of his right hand. An accident back in the 1960s took three of his fingers. But Simpson has taken his doctor's advice.

"She told me not to hit the rocking chair unless I have to," he said. It's a philosophy he extends to his bikes. No matter how rusty, no matter how bent and banged, "we don't give up, unless (the bike is) ready for the graveyard." When Simpson comes across the rare bike that is beyond repair, he strips it for parts, he said. A few times a week, Simpson's friend Merle Rudisill helps out. Side by side, the two men can refurbish about 16 bikes in a day. They rely on donations to pay for parts; their labor is free.

"If some of Ernie's good rubs off on me, then that's enough pay for me," Rudisill said. The two have seen bikes of all shapes and sizes, bikes made in China and Japan and Poland, three-wheelers and little scooters and bicycles built for two. Once, the men heard word the new owner of a double occupancy bike used it to start up a taxi business, said Rudisill.

"The customer still had to do some pedaling, though," he said. Simpson is also on the lookout for sewing machines to repair and send through Pedals for Progress. Last year, he sent 14 machines abroad.

Simpson gives out bikes locally, too. Sponsors of people who can't afford bikes contact him. "My father always said, 'Don't do something that you don't profit from.' I believe I profit in here," said Simpson, pointing to his heart.

He turns back to a repair in progress, spinning the back wheel of a bike with his good hand. "Now, see how that wheel is true? That's a good bicycle," he said