By Alan Schultz
Fall 2021 Newsletter

On August 19, 2021, on behalf of Pedals for Progress, I had the great privilege to be sent to Albania to visit our partners at Ecovolis, to meet with Ened Mato and the rest of his extraordinary team to get to know them and discuss their operations.

For the past eight months I have been working closely with Dave, Gary, and the rest of the team at P4P, as the newly elected Vice President of Operations. Working for Pedals for Progress since high school has always been a joy for me. The work we do here is truly inspirational and makes any day of hard work loading a container well worth it. I was offered the full-time position and instantly knew it was something I wanted to take on. I was extremely excited to accept the position to dedicate more of my time and skills to our cause of shipping bikes and sewing machines to motivated people in the developing world.

Dave was very aware of the biggest flaw in my resume (and life experience) when hiring me for a larger role in an international organization like P4P. My lack of travel. I had never left the country. The furthest north I had been was Boston, furthest south was the Outer Banks, furthest west was Central Pennsylvania and furthest east was swimming at the Jersey Shore. Lewis and Clark would be ashamed of my lack of westward expansion. Dave knew I needed to learn from the world, to get a better understanding of our mission and what we’re up against.

I woke up one morning at the end of June to an email with the Subject line: Crazy Idea. I opened it and read a thread of messages between Dave and Ened, asking if he’d be interested in hosting me at his summer camp in Jale for a week to give me the opportunity to learn about the world by seeing it on my own. Ened was instantly on board with the idea and more than happy to host me. I was in shock, filled with excitement, anxiety, and joy.

Fast forward to mid-august, I was boarding a plane to Albania alone with a backpack and newly acquired passport on my first journey out of the country thinking “what did I get myself into.” I had often dreamt of going abroad. The experience didn’t feel real stepping outside onto the tarmac at Tirana International Airport. I was picked up by Ervin, a long-time employee for Ecovolis. The four-hour trip from Tirana to Jale was spent getting to know Ervin and the work Ecovolis has done for the capital city of Tirana. Their biggest program is a bike sharing initiative where residents can rent bikes for a very small fee to navigate the city. This greatly helps people commute while alleviating some of the traffic of the small but bustling city. To better accommodate cyclists, Ecovolis also has been pushing the city to create, grow, and maintain bike lanes and other infrastructure that will make it much safer to travel throughout the city. Ervin expressed the great need for bicycle safety and advocacy to draw the public’s trust to this method of transportation. This is something that is essential for any city that wants to successfully reduce traffic and emissions made by cars and buses. Ecovolis does not simply distribute bikes, but is making a difference by having bicycle transportation not just reliable and available, but sustainable and appealing to the public.

Ecovolis in Albania is a fascinating organization as they have a true passion for environmentalism on several fronts. As we made our way to Jale, we traversed breathtaking mountain views overlooking wonderfully blue seafront. Ervin was describing the eco-tourist campground that we would be staying at for the week, one of the many programs Ecovolis is involved with. He had been there for two months prior, and came to Tirana to pick me up and collect more tents and other supplies for the camp. It was one of the many initiatives they take part in to return to nature and help strengthen people’s connection to the natural world. In the off season while not at the camp, they return to Tirana for their bike initiative while also working on other projects like planting trees with local volunteers to revitalize the diminished forest in Lurë.

When we arrived at camp, I was blown away at what they have created. Two blocks away from the beautiful beachfront was the entrance to the camp that scaled the steep mountain. It was broken up into several levels. Entering camp at the bottom-most level there was a volleyball and soccer court where young people can play games and relax. A handful of bikes were positioned here and available to anyone at camp, allowing them to ride around the small town and get to the beach. Climbing the stairs that led up to the various levels there were some RV-campers and other common areas. On the third level there was an open-air kitchen and a large area with plenty of tables and chairs for people to gather and eat meals. Further up the mountain, following the rocky steps, I approached the several levels of campground with 150 or so tents placed beautifully under the abundance of olive trees. Ping pong tables, common areas, a bar with drinks, and fire pits were also sprinkled about the area. Painted wooden paths and fences brought an elevated level of color to the already vibrant camp. It was an intimate community with plenty of friendly faces with welcoming smiles.

Settling in, I was finally able to meet Ened, the lead organizer of Ecovolis. He instantly made me feel at home and was extremely hospitable. He told me more about the camp and the many things him and his team are involved with throughout Albania. The camp was set up in the early 2000s with the idea of bringing eco-tourism to Albania to build the country’s economy in an honest, fair, and sustainable manner. Ened is a true trailblazer, inspiring several other camps up and down the coast for others with like-minded ideas of providing people with peaceful eco-tourism opportunities. Ened’s camp has the capacity to hold up to two-hundred people with full amenities. He hosts various youth programs and students throughout the summer. Travelers and other youth from several different parts of Albania and Kosovo are also welcomed and bused to and from the camp. For a small fee of US $7 a day, each tenant has access to a tent, showers and running water, bathrooms, and breakfast and dinner. There is access to an on-site bar with espresso, water, and flavored drinks that cost less than they would at the beach. These funds supplement the camp allowing them to continue to buy necessary food and supplies.

Ened explained that the growth of the camp, in its 20th year, has been very promising and stronger than ever. The entire experience is a great way to remove oneself from the typical consumerist vacation that many people grapple with. Cell phones and social media use are frowned upon to the extent of one sign encouraging people to have conversation eye to eye. The culture at camp revolved heavily around companionship and camaraderie. Camp felt tight knit, as if everyone knew everyone.

One night, Ened and I were sitting a bit removed from the campfire as many of the other campers surrounded it while listening to a performer sing songs playing an acoustic guitar. We were talking about the mission of Ecovolis and the reason behind the camp. Albania’s history is very dense, especially in the last 50 years as they have grappled with corruption, civil war and reconstruction. Ened has a deep desire to be able to create and maintain a community – his country – of people dedicated to peace and environmentalism. He is proud of what he has created as the camp reflects these desires to create a community of people that are self-sufficient and making efforts to remove themselves from the rat-race of the 21st century. Paraphrasing, Ened said “take for example these kids, what they are doing is so anti-system, they are young and can go down to the bars down below, but instead choose to be here singing around the campfire under the stars.” He continued to explain his greater mission of using the bikes we send him as “soldiers in a bigger fight” against the various forms of corruption within the country. They are used as tools to mobilize the community, to allow them to get to where they need to be, to build something from the ground up that they can all call home.

The people at camp certainly follow Ened’s vision. Among the people at camp I came across a group of friends close in age to myself that stand out most in my mind. They were bused down from Kosovo and invited me to have espresso with them down at the beach one morning. Like any new group of friends, we talked about our backgrounds, hobbies, interests and what we do for a living. I told them about Pedals for Progress and while they did not work for Ecovolis, and were in Jale for a short vacation, they instantly gravitated to and understood our mission. It was a moment of clarity for me, and a sobering reminder of what we do. They didn’t have the same kind of interest in our organization that people my age have here in the United States have for P4P. It was through a different lens I saw how important our work is. They instantly recognized how useful a bicycle can be for someone. They thought of how important a tool like a bicycle can be for the people back home in Kosovo. When my friends from the United States see a bicycle, they do so as a product of leisure or exercise. Abroad, in a developing country, it is much more. I was blown away seeing the agency this group of guys had when they heard more of our program. They explained how Kosovo and Albania, like many countries in the Balkans, are struggling to build themselves, many being newly formed governments. They know that the bicycle is a way to achieve a fulfilling, successful life with long-term security. They saw the tool and thought of their homes and the people they care about, people who can use that tool to greatly change their lives.

Throughout the week, staying and working at the camp, I was constantly surrounded by hard-working people dedicated to a greater cause. Ervin, who I spent the great majority of the trip with, was a well of knowledge and inspiration. One day, Ervin, the chef at the camp Ari, and I went a few towns over to pick up mattress pads to bring back to camp. They were in storage located behind a group of bungalows accessible only by a tight winding path that went up the mountain. We loaded over 200 foam pads onto a flatbed parked at the bottom of the road. Relentlessly hauling ten mattresses at a time, Ervin and Ari showed an energy that never flagged. Ervin’s mindset is captured by this image and another moment when we were paddling a canoe in the sea. We were paddling against the wind to access a small private beach. The closer we got the harder it was to paddle, yelling to me in the back he said “Do you see the beach? We must keep going! We can see the beach, so we can go touch the beach!” It is that mentality that stuck with me the most. Ervin and the rest of the people at Ecovolis can see the beach – they see a community that can be better, that can serve a purpose and be peaceful. They are pushing to touch that beach and make it a reality.

One of my main jobs here at P4P is loading our containers. Before my trip to Albania, closing the doors and putting a seal on the container, with the bikes officially on their journey to a new country, the destination always seemed vague and distant. Being able to interact with people who receive our bikes has closed that gap and has given me a better understanding of the extent of our mission. It was an amazing experience to be thrown headfirst into the world, beyond the two square miles of High Bridge, New Jersey, to face a previously unseen part of myself and the world. It’s motivating to know the groups we work with have a deep desire to change the communities they love. Traveling to Albania, the concept of mobility was hard to escape. It’s intrinsic to what we do, as the bicycle gives people the opportunity to be mobile, to go beyond what they are capable of on foot. When you have mobility, you have the opportunity to create change. This change is multifaceted and goes beyond simple transportation to work and school. It includes personal and private change. Cycling gives personal freedom to expand your reach within your community, to be active with your friends and family. To be able to connect with the people in your life, to see them eye to eye and live comfortably beside them, gives a community greater strength to push forward and grow on so many different levels. While this has always been a core tenet of Pedals for Progress, it resonated at a much deeper level to me after this trip. It was truly an honor to see the camaraderie, companionship, hard work, and passion I came across during my time in Albania, generated from people who simply want to improve the world.