All posts by Michael Sabrio

Guatemala

Guatemala Intro, Fall 2025

Fall 2025 Newsletter

The Spring 2025 Newsletter has lots of information from our good friends in Guatemala about the work they’ve been doing all around the country with used bikes and sewing machines. We recently celebrated 25 years of working with FIDESMA — we’ve shipped them more than 13,000 bicycles since 2000. Here’s the report from Guatemala on their adventures with the arrival this summer of the 26th container and their other activities.

Ecolobici shop entranceThanks to your support, we have been able to continue to supply this organization with annual shipments of bicycles and sewing machines. With their new Chimaltenango warehouse and shop, the group’s expansion has put them on track to receive two containers per year to maintain their operations, assuming our production levels can meet demands.

Guatemala Christmas ParadeWith a 27th shipment already being planned for early December, we are very happy to give yet another update on our longest running program while we prepare. With the increased focus on instability in the countries in the southern half of our hemisphere, I find it incredibly important to keep talking about the programs we support there.

With increased focus on drugs coming across the border from countries all over the global south, our friends in Guatemala and Belize are directly at risk as a forgotten middleman. The men and women we support in these countries feel increased threats as their countries act as a passageway for the flow of drugs to our country.

Putting any one solution aside, Pedals for Progress hopes to help by continuing to lend a helping hand to our neighbors to the south. While it may not seem as direct as what we see in the media, a bike or sewing machine sent to the global south is a helping hand to someone in need. Aiding our friends to help build their countries up, not down, is a way in which we can help make all our homes stronger and safer.

GUys on Bikes, Guatemala 2025While the solutions are endless, this is how we can help with our bikes and sewing machines. I’d like to thank you for supporting our neighbors in Central America. You will see that it does not come without challenges, unexpected delays and financial constraints but nevertheless, we hope to continue to serve them in any capacity we can. It may be a small drop in a big bucket, but the ripples it creates are lasting.

Albania, Belize, Guatemala, Kosovo

Short Updates, Fall 2025

Our full bicycle shipping results for Fall 2025

Albania

Absolute Bikes Tirana – Tirana, Albania
Founded by former members of Ecovolis, this community driven shop promotes cycling, environmentalism, tourism, and philanthropy.
436 Bikes and 30 Sewing Machines
435 bikes and 40 sewing machines

Belize

God Cares Outreach (P4P-Belize) – Belize City, Belize
Supports people from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and denominations, united in spreading hope, faith, love and now, bicycles and sewing machines, to the people of Belize.
440 bicycles and 30 sewing machines
465 bikes and 60 sewing machines

Kosovo

GoBike – Kosovo, Pristina
A community-focused bike shop serving people in Europe’s young and growing nation of Kosovo.
436 bikes

Guatemala

FIDESMA – Chimaltenango, Guatemala:
The Foundation for Sustainable Development and the Environment provides community aid through various support programs and their ECOBICI bike shop.
460 bikes and 25 sewing machines
431 bikes and 30 sewing machines

Thank you for helping us support affordable cycling around the globe.

Collectors

Westfield Rotary: 30 years of collections

Fall 2025 Newsletter

This past fall we celebrated 30 years with the Westfield Rotary Club. On 10/4/25, the club hosted another wonderful collection that brought in 98 bicycles and 5 sewing machines! This brought the club’s total collection well over 3,000 bicycles that have been gathered and donated throughout the Westfield area since their start in the spring of 1995.

Warren Rorden of the Westfield Club has been largely responsible for the club’s collection efforts. A resident of Westfield for most of his life, his family moved to the area from Queens so his father could work at Bell Labs during the war effort.

Alan, Warren and caretakerWarren grew up in the area and from a young age was involved in the community. He shared a story with us from his youth growing up in Westfield in the 50s. As classic as American pie, Warren founded the town’s first hot rod club with his friends and classmates, called the Piston Pushers. With a love for cars, the group of high schoolers would drive around town and onto the newly established Garden State Parkway to find broken-down motorists and offer a helping hand. The Piston Pushers spent time showcasing their cars in parking lots and even replacing entire engines in neighborhood driveways. It was an early sign of a young man dedicated to helping his community through a shared passion for cars and machines.

Years later, as a member of the Westfield Rotary Club, Warren was introduced to our program after a presentation by our founder. Upon hearing about P4P, Warren caught the infectious spirit of supporting the mission to collect used bicycles for people in the developing world. With a mechanical mind that understood the value of a vehicle, and a heart for his community, Warren was off and running, collecting bicycles for people in need.

Westfield Rotary Collection October 2014
Westfield Rotary, Oct 11, 2014

Over the years, Warren has led the Westfield Rotary Club’s annual collection events. For three decades, the club has held successful drives, averaging around 100 bikes each year, in the small parking lot of the Westfield Board of Education building.

As with any good Rotarian, Warren brought the rest of the community into the effort. Beyond engaging individual donors in and around town, he built broader community support. With help from the Westfield Police Department and Jay’s Cycle, he nurtured a network that comes together each year for international outreach. He often credits various former mayors and his longtime friend Bill Bansall for being instrumental in early collections.

Warren and the Westfield Club remain committed to their community beyond P4P. With yearly food drives, volunteer work at local food banks, and generous grants for local charities and scholarship programs for students, the club covers all bases when it comes to community aid.

Today, the club is still deeply active in Westfield, and Warren, now approaching 90 years old, is still involved where he can be, even showing up to a No Kings rally despite limited mobility. Passing the torch, he has enlisted the help of club member Walter Korfmichale to help organize and run future collections.Walter and Ray

We’re incredibly proud of the work Warren has done over the years. P4P would like to thank him and the Westfield Rotary Club for their decades of commitment. Thirty years, 3,000 bicycles, and tens of thousands of dollars raised is no small feat. Thank you, Warren, for your dedication to helping others around the block and around the world. Thousands of people from Central America to rural Africa have felt the impact of Westfield’s generosity. Cheers to a great legacy!

Rwanda

Rwanda Update, Fall 2025: New Container

Fall 2025 Newsletter

October 2025: 429 bikes and 101 sewing machines are headed to Rwanda! After a flurry of delays, we completed a rare weekday loading on Tuesday, 10/28/25, and the shipment is now on its way to our friends at the Rwandan Wildlife Conservation Association (RWCA). Marking our third shipment to this incredible conservation group, we’re proud to continue growing our involvement with their efforts. Many of these bikes will help rangers access a wider range of conservation areas to log and track wildlife, including the group’s main initiative: protecting the endangered gray crowned crane.

Rwanda no. 3 loadingOur partnership with RWCA began in 2021. On May 15th, 2021, we made our very first shipment to Rwanda: 503 bikes and 43 sewing machines. A year later, we followed up with another container of 452 bicycles and 60 sewing machines.

As with many new programs, the first two shipments came with challenges. Rwanda’s inland shipping costs are significantly higher than most of our partner countries, and many of the items sent early on were only distributed only within the RWCA network. Nevertheless, the enthusiasm and dedication of RWCA remained strong. When Olivier reached out requesting a third shipment, with their funding ready and a new distribution plan proposed, we knew this partnership was moving forward with purpose and vision.

“We still have many of the bikes in action. Our rangers and community conservation champions use them daily. In fact, I still use one myself, even though it is falling apart and I really need a new one! In a few villages, there have been challenges finding spare parts or skilled mechanics, but we have been training some of the community members to address these issues.

The sewing machines are also being put to good use. We currently have about 47 women organized in sewing cooperatives, and some of the machines you sent are still being used regularly.

We do have funds available for shipping…Moving forward, we are planning to shift our model slightly — we would like to distribute half of the bikes and sell the other half locally. This would allow us to generate funds to cover the cost of future containers. We are also looking to use some of the bikes in our tourism business, renting them out to visitors and using the income to support future shipments.” – Dr. Oliver Nsengimana

This thoughtful feedback highlights RWCA’s commitment to long-term sustainability both in conservation and in community empowerment. Their new approach will allow future shipments to be partially self-funded while expanding the reach of their programs.

In addition to bicycle distribution, RWCA has launched a sewing machine initiative to create alternative economic opportunities for local residents. Since the pandemic, the organization has observed increased illegal activity in the Rugezi Marsh, which many nearby communities rely on for natural resources. To protect this fragile ecosystem, RWCA established a cooperative model that provides alternative income sources. The sewing machines we send help strengthen this effort, giving families new ways to earn a living without relying so heavily on the marsh.

Thanks to your donations, we’re able to put used bikes and sewing machines to good use in Rwanda. Beyond providing transportation, your support helps protect some of life’s greatest treasures, from the Rugezi Marsh to the iconic gray crowned crane. Thank you for helping us uplift communities while supporting vital conservation efforts.

bicycles, Kosovo

Quirky Bikes

Fall 2025 Newsletter

The range of bicycles Pedals for Progress receives is quite amazing. Our generous supporters donate bicycles that cover almost every era. From the classic yellow Schwinn to modern full suspension mountain bikes fresh out the box, we have accepted and shipped our fair share of interesting bikes.

We get thousands of bikes per year at our collections, so it can be hard to keep track of some of the more interesting bikes we receive. This year two bikes especially caught my eye.

The first was Bob’s old skip tooth that was dropped off our collection in Clinton NJ with the Clinton Presbyterian and North Hunterdon Rotary Club. As soon as it was unloaded, it was turning heads at the collection like a time capsule from another life.

Bob told us a little bit about the bike. It was one of his first bikes as a kid more than 50 years ago that helped him all around town. Like many bikes from our childhood, one day he stowed it away in his family barn, where it sat for years.

Guatemala quirky bikeThe age of the bike conjured up a lot of questions like “Is it good enough?” “Is it too old?” “Do you accept antique bikes”. In short: yes. For the most part this was a fine bike that simply had a lot of years behind it. It was mostly kept in a barn, so the elements did not push it beyond the repairable condition we typically ask our bikes to be in. Upon learning about our friends in Guatemala at Masa Critica and their interest in vintage bikes, I knew right away who would appreciate this special bike.

The guys down in Guatemala love these vintage bikes and were very encouraging to me when they heard we sometimes get antique bikes at our collections. The same bike culture we have of fixing and restoring old vintage bikes is alive and well in Guatemala. FIDESMA was able to sell the bike to Muhammed who was absolutely excited to see Bob’s skip chain find its way down south. This important sale goes right back to FIDESMA community outreach efforts to complete the full cycle of our program.

Penny farthing bike, Guatemala 2025Now in Guatemala, Muhammed will be sure to put plenty of care and respect into this blast from the past. It is a simple reminder of how our memoirs are stored in these bicycles and lived on through others around the world. Thank you, Bob, for sending your special bike to a new home.

Another funky bike we received is this custom beach cruiser we picked up down the shore with the Monmouth social club. I always like using these examples of quirky bikes to illustrate the grand potential of P4P. While this bike isn’t practical as a commuter bike, it certainly tells a story about the person who rode it.

Beach bike with long barsThis is simply a whimsical bike. Every time I look at it, it just makes me smile. The long handlebars and the all-black paint job combine a sort of silliness and ruggedness that totally clashes with the beach-bike frame. I can totally picture this bike being ridden down the boardwalk. To me it just screams Jersey Shore.

I love New Jersey, so sending this bike to one of our partners was a complete joy. We always speak of the practicality of Pedals for Progress and the importance of our bikes as tools of personal empowerment. While this bike may not get you to work as quickly as a sleek road bike, it spreads simple happiness and joy to our recipients, illustrating a different side of our mission.

I rarely try to track bikes: I don’t want to burden our partners by having them look out for special bikes among the hundreds they unload from a container they are trying to return on time.

Beach bike in KosovoI snapped this photo of the bike simply because it made me smile. Sure enough, one day, months later, I see the same bike with a happy new owner on GoBike’s Instagram page. By sheer coincidence, I was overthrown with happiness seeing our proud new owner of this unique bike.

His smile in the photo, next to the quirky bike, gave me a newfound appreciation for our organization. He knows it won’t be the most practical, or the best bike to get from point A to B, but this man also saw the joy inside the bike and wanted to give it new life. I love imagining the heads turn in Kosovo as it rides down the streets infecting people with smiles and laughter seeing a foreign bike from a wacky country called New Jersey.

To whoever donated this wonderful bike, thank you. Thank you for illustrating the joy and happiness bicycles can bring for people in the developing world. So keep those bikes coming, in all forms, to help us keep spreading the joy of cycling.

Collectors

Thank you to Marty’s Reliable Bike Shop: Our 100th bike

Fall 2025 Newsletter

Jesse Owner of Martys and AlanThis year we quietly introduced a bicycle drop-off program with our friends at Marty’s Reliable Cycle. In an effort to help field some off-season drop-off requests, we have partnered with Marty’s to help us collect bicycles yearlong across their three locations.

Drop-off locations provide a convenient way for you to donate your bicycle to Pedals for Progress. The best way to donate is still through our collections held in the spring and the fall, and we encourage you to check our schedule for locations near you. To mitigate an overflow of bicycles for the staff at Marty’s, we are slowly introducing the program to test its sustainability and overall effectiveness.

Martys drop boxWe still highly encourage and suggest our usual $20 donation per bike to help offset shipping costs. P4P still needs financial assistance to move the bikes from Marty’s to our warehouse to complete the full transit of the bicycle overseas. To do so, we have drop boxes conveniently located at each register for cash and checks, and for you to receive a receipt of donation.

Martys High BridgeAlong with special funding received from the HOLT family foundation, we are happy to be able to introduce this new endeavor more formally to our network of close supporters. Marty’s team has graciously offered time and space, so we’d like to respect their helping hand as much as possible. Please drop off bikes during normal business hours. Please make a monetary donation with each bike. And please have bicycles in repairable condition.

Guatemala

Report from Guatemala, Fall 2025

Fall 2025 Newsletter

Clearing the Container Through Customs

FIDESMA‘s 26th container arrived August 9, 2025. As always, with the support of our authorized customs agent, we made all the necessary tax payments to authorize the release of the container. The only inconvenience this time was that the container was flagged “Red,” which caused many delays. Several days went by without clearance, and the problem was that they unloaded everything, then reloaded it, and now they don’t know how to properly arrange the bicycles inside. Then, for anything they don’t like, they want to impose a fine, which increases the payments and greatly affects the final import costs.

Guatemala FIDESMA Ecolobici logoDespite the problems at customs, we managed to get the container released as quickly as possible, and after many unplanned days, it was finally transported to Chimaltenango. Costs have risen compared to five years ago. Even so, we continue moving forward and doing our best to ensure that the bicycles are available in the ECOLOBICI (Spanish facebook) Chimaltenango shop.

This is not the first time we’ve had problems clearing customs

Receiving the Bicycles at our Chimaltenango Location

Guatemalan volunteers unloadingOnce the container arrives at the Chimaltenango warehouse, we unload it with the support of a group of friends and volunteers who also love bicycles and understand their social and environmental benefits. They are young people who come to help us unload the bicycles whenever we call them.

Usually, we are more than 15 people helping on unloading day. This time, the container arrived at 2am in the morning — even so, we were there to store the bicycles in our facility.

Guatemala volunteer unloadingWe finished unloading at dawn, as the sun was rising. We were tired but satisfied, knowing that all the effort had been worthwhile and that we could move on to the next phase — inventory, pricing, and special deliveries to people in need, sports enthusiasts, and workers who want a bicycle.

Bicycle Sales

Ecolobici shop entranceIn the sales phase, we prepare and organize the bicycles by type and quality to make pricing easier, offering promotions depending on the population being served.

Guatemalan girl recipient

We look for children who need a bicycle, young people who don’t have one and would like one, and we encourage them to use bicycles for sports, training, helping with household transport, or commuting to work. We also reach out to older adults who work far from home and need transportation. We always strive to offer the lowest possible price so they can take a bicycle home.

Guatemalan recipientAdditionally, when selling bicycles, we aim to distribute them in many different communities and towns to avoid discrimination about who receives one and who doesn’t. We try to deliver bicycles to all kinds of people — men, women, children, youth, and even some elderly individuals.

Activities for Bicycle Donations

Ecolobici shop entrance with bikesDuring the first 10 months, we planned to donate more than five bicycles in various communities in Chimaltenango and beyond. We primarily focus on finding children among those in need to give them a bicycle. We can see that each recipient is very happy to receive their bike.

The photos show how everyone takes their bicycle home to use it on their streets and in their daily lives.

Social Activities Funded by Sales

Guatemala Christmas paradeIn addition to bicycle sales — which benefit both adults and children, and the annual bicycle donations — we also provide support to community groups in need. Each year, we identify communities and groups that require assistance due to poverty, illness, lack of local education, child malnutrition, or the needs of women artisans.

Guatemalan reseller, bulk purchaseEvery year, we look for where and how to offer help within our means. Sometimes, we complement aid from other institutions through coordination and partnerships so that together we can better assist communities facing social challenges.

We are very grateful, on behalf of the ECOLOBICI–FIDESMA project, for this shipment of bicycles, which is number 26–2025. We are certain that the people — children, youth, and adults — will be very thankful when we deliver these bicycles to their communities and towns, where they can use them for work, sports, exercise, travel, and transportation to distant places. Everyone agrees that using a bicycle is a great benefit.Guatemala shoppers

We will continue to share updates on our promotional activities, sales, donations, fundraising, and social initiatives throughout the rest of this year.

Many thanks to David, to Alan, and to all the colleagues who support you in the United States.

Sincerely,

Arnulfo Catu and The FIDESMA Team

Fidesma staff and Alan
Analy, Pedro, Alan, Margarita, Alfuno
InGear - The Newsletter of P4P

President’s Message, Fall 2025

Bethlehem Presbyterian Church collectionDear Pedal People,

Happy Holidays! Thank you for your support to Pedals for Progress and Sewing Peace.

Alan at Trenton FairThis is my favorite time of year as it gives us the chance to look back at all the great work we have accomplished. There is always so much, that I find it hard to know where to begin.

Start domestically, where each bike begins its journey, I’d like to thank our donors for parting ways with their beloved items and donating them to our cause. Theres a special kind of sentimentality that is felt with a lot of these items that are donated by the people we meet at our collection events across the tri-sate. The bicycles and sewing machines we collect have a life of their own and we appreciate your trust in us forwarding these items to others in need around the world.

Material objects like these have a unique function as they are operated by people. To operate a bike or machine, your body has to literally engage with the machine, using both your feet and your hands. They require you to almost hug and hold the bike or machine as your pedal forward or push fabric through the feet of the machine. The people operating these machines have felt them, literally held them in their arms in thousands of hours of operation. Thousands of miles peddled, thousands of miles sewn. It’s this connection of man and machine that injects life into these tools.

Bike with noteThat life contained in an object creates the sentimentality we feel when letting go. It’s a fact of life that we must let go at one time or another. At many of our collections I get the special honor to watch people let go of these beloved items. I love to listen to our donors talk about their items as they unload their car. As they are in this phase of letting go, you sometimes see people re-live some of the greatest times of their life. Sometimes it means letting go of a bike they rode daily across campus. Maybe the bike they took cross country. Or a childhood bike they rode on their paper route and left it the rafters for 50 years.

Sewing machine with noteThe machines can hit the hardest. It’s often a mother or grandmother who has passed away and their next of kin is not sure what to do with the machine. I’ve heard endless stories of the Halloween costumes, the prom dresses, the mended jeans and coats, all the loving creations that were made behind some of the machines we’ve collected.

Regardless of the story, or the memories associated with them, it is always a pleasure to hear these stories and be able to confidently assure that we will indeed find a new home for your item. There is a lightness, a relief, that people show when they know that the item will not be forgotten, that those memories will not be forgotten as we pass them onto their new homes.

Looking internationally, these items truly change the way people live. They are tools of personal empowerment that radiate a sense of independence and freedom. The same objects that were once reminding our donors of who they were or where they’ve been, become objects that are now motivating our recipients of who they can be or where they can go.

These inanimate objects infect people with idea that they can go anywhere or do anything. As our recipients receive these important items, they are able to go out into the world and create their own lifetime of memories and successes. The connection of man and machine continues to grow and continues to inspire.

Alan donating bikeYour old bike that helped you around campus, will now help someone get to a school of their own. The bike that you rode across our beautiful country will continue to cross another. The bike that helped you on your paper route will continue to employ another young person on their budding career.

The machines continue to create dresses, costumes, and execute emergency repairs needed to keep life going. They are machines of powerful implications, once used for hobbies in the US, now being used in the trades in Uganda. The machine used by a beloved grandmother will be loving used by a new mother all her own in Guatemala.

We are proud to be able to extend your pre-loved items and extend the memories of those bikes and machines. I hope you enjoy the following stories and reports that illustrate some of what we hope to achieve with P4P and reminders of why we do what we do. I really cannot thank you enough for supporting our mission. And Thank you especially for making the sometimes-difficult decision to donating your pre-loved bicycle or sewing machine.

Sincerely,
Alan Schultz, President P4P and SP

InGear - The Newsletter of P4P

President’s Message, Spring 2025

Dear Pedal People,

First and foremost, I’d like to thank you for being here on our website, reading our news, showing your support. This newsletter is our way of showing you the progress we’ve made in the first half of the year, shipping the donated bicycles and sewing machines we’ve collected in the tri-state region. Thank you for taking a moment to read about the work you have allowed us to do.

We’ve had a really awesome spring season that honestly surprised me with its results. Heading into spring, I was white-knuckling it unsure of how well we’d do, or what world events might come up that could jeopardize our work. Coming off the heels of the longshoremen’s strike in the fall, we thought the shipping world couldn’t get any tougher. Then came tariffs.Kosovo loading, 15 April 2025

I’m not here to comment on or critique them, other than to say they have affected our operations. The shipping industry is clutching its pearls and has slowed down significantly due to the large number of unknowns in the world. Working under tight time constraints, balancing a small warehouse, and organizing volunteers becomes much harder when the world is at odds with us. Big problems like these leave big strains on small operations like ours.

While there have been more challenges getting our bicycles out the door, we’ve managed to weather the storm thanks to your support. I was blown away by our donors once we started our spring season. In these polarizing times, I was unsure how the public would respond to our cause this spring. Thankfully, it’s become clear to me that Americans remain united and ready to help their neighbors.

While the news and media seem ever more divided and discombobulated, the experiences I’ve had on the ground are filled with amazing community efforts. The words of encouragement we’ve received this spring have been deeply moving. People are rooting for us to continue serving our neighbors abroad, with a sense of sincerity I’ve never felt before. This support and the stories I’ve heard from our friends overseas have helped me tremendously to keep going.

I hope the following stories motivate you to keep going too. They shine a light on dark corners of the world that are full of love once discovered. Belize holds the title for some of the toughest living conditions in the world, with the lowest GDP in Central America. Kosovo is a nation marching for recognition, overshadowed by other complicated European politics. Sierra Leone and Togo have been placed on travel bans, while posing no threat to the U.S. Wire transfers from Albania and Guatemala are still flagged by our banks. And yet, these are all countries fighting for their voices to be heard. These are all countries we proudly support.

We hope this newsletter shows you why it’s worth standing behind our friends around the world. Rallying around the simple symbol of freedom a bicycle represents can be a guiding force in how we live our lives. Thank you for supporting our world through the gift of donating a bicycle, giving people the freedom they deserve.

Sincerely, Alan Schultz, President P4P and SP