Please join us in sending our sympathies to Beverly Merchant due to her recent loss.

In lieu of flowers, memorials to:
ASPCA
PO Box 96929
Washington, DC
20090-6929

Freedom House
3 Pavillion Road
Glen Gardner, NJ
08826.

Floyd S. Merchant

Floyd S. Merchant, age 80, of Clinton, NJ passed away on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 at home after a long illness.

He was born on December 3, 1932 in Woodcliff Lake, NJ.  He lived in Clinton, NJ for 32 years, moving from Pattenburg, NJ.

He was the son of the late Floyd S. and Marion Lunan Merchant.

He was the husband of Beverly Blumberg Merchant, celebrating 32 years of marriage.

He was a retired Sargent 1^st Class in the US Army.  He served in the US Air Force, completing 2 hitches in the Air Force and was also in the National Guard.  He retired from the Army Reserve as a SFC.

Mr. Merchant graduated with 2 Bachelor’s Degrees; one from Ricker College in mathematics and one from Edison College in psychology.  At age 70, he completed his Master’s Degree in Neuropsychology from Saybrook University in San Francisco, CA.

He operated his own alarm installation service “Hunterdon Security”, installing security alarms in the Hunterdon County area.  Floyd was also an Electrical and Mechanical Engineer at Bell Labs in Whippany, NJ.  In the last 15 years, he worked as a security guard at Foster Wheeler in Perryville, NJ.

Survivors in addition to his wife include 2 sons; Daniel White and his wife Retha of Missouri and Arthur H. Merchant of Basking Ridge, NJ.  1 daughter; Susan Walsh. 1 step-son; Kenneth Stern and his wife Sandra of Sandy Hook, VA. 4 grandchildren; David Walsh, John White, Samantha Stern and Cassidy Stern.

Calling hours will be Tuesday, June 25, 2013 from 2-4 and 7-9pm.  Funeral Service will be Wednesday, June 26, 2013 at 10am.  All at Scarponi-Bright Funeral Home, 26 Main Street, Lebanon, NJ.  Interment will be private.

In lieu of flowers, memorials to ASPCA, PO Box 96929, Washington, DC, 20090-6929 or Freedom House, 3 Pavillion Road, Glen Gardner, NJ 08826.

For many decades, on the wall next to my computer, there has been an AT&T poster with a photograph of the moon in the night sky and a very large Saturn, Jupiter and a third planet, maybe Pluto, in the background. In white letters in the night sky the poster reads “Don’t recycle. We can always move.” That seems to be the motto for many nations. Just shift the burden to another location or leave the poisoned one behind. I’ve never agreed with this mentality and, through P4P, have made a point to cross international boundaries not with pollution, but with productive recycled materials. We don’t need to make more, we need to use what we have—and share it.

I have been fortunate to earn recognition for my efforts and now, by virtue of having become a Rolex Laureate in 2000, I have been invited to participate in the 1st International Convention of Environmental Laureates in Freiburg Germany in March, 2012.

The Convention is an academic platform for those who have earned various prestigious prizes for marked accomplishments on behalf of the environment in Europe and other international locations. The goal of this convention is to push “for the development and adoption of ‘The Declaration on Rio +20 by International Convention of Environmental Laureates,’ which aims to send a positive signal for achieving ambitious climate and sustainability goals and necessary innovations.”

I’m already packing my bags, suit and all, and while I’m humbled by the recognition, I plan on grabbing this opportunity to push for the very real and necessary changes to international environmental standards and cooperation. After all, how useful are bicycles on the moon?

For more information on the convention and the European Environment Foundation go to or click on the following link: www.european-environment-foundation.eu

Obituary from the Gettysburg Times

We here at P4P need to acknowledge the passing of our dear friend and coworker Dick Swisher.

While the sewing machine program was a P4P initiative, it was Dick Swisher who made it successful. In the eleven years we have been shipping sewing machines, it was Dick who collected, repaired and prepared close to one thousand sewing machines for shipment overseas.  Dick’s work with P4P touched lives of ordinary people from Albania to Yemen, sixteen countries in total.

He was a humble man from Granite Station Road in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, who reached out to help the unfortunate worldwide.  We lost a hero, a friend, someone totally irreplaceable.  We need to celebrate his lifetime of accomplishments while we mourn his loss.

Obituary from the Gettysburg Times

Pedals for Progress is a simple beast. We take unwanted bikes here and send them to where they are needed. But to do that, we need people to give us those bikes. It is during our spring and autumn collection campaigns that we gather up the inventory to ship overseas.

The new collection season is quickly approaching and we’re busily scheduling collection events around the area. In the twenty years we’ve been doing this, we’ve formed a lot of relationships with groups and individuals who contact us every year to run collections in their areas. However, we are always looking for more.

Our programs overseas have an insatiable appetite for good, quality bicycles they can afford. Those bikes, whether they be road or mountain bikes, are simply unavailable through normal retail channels to 99% of the people who need one. Such bikes can be found, however, gathering dust in garages, basements, and back yards across America, and we can get them there.

We’re looking for more individuals and groups who would like to work with us and sponsor collections. Help us meet the demand overseas. Help us keep our landfills free of tons of unwanted bikes. Help your neighbors find an ecologically sound way to rid themselves of their bikes.

Contact Bev at (908) 638 4811 or bev@p4p.org to schedule a collection with us. We’ll happily help you with the details. It’s easier than you might think.

P4P in NJ Biz



9 AM – 12 Noon
Tohickon Middle School
5051 Old Easton Road
Doylestown, PA

Middletown-Odessa Rotary
Middletown Super Wal-Mart and Middletown Crossing Shopping Center
Rte 299, Middletown, DE

9 AM – 12 Noon
Indiana Midday Rotary Club
621 Philadelphia St (PNC Bank)
Indiana, PA 15701

1 PM – 4 PM
sponsored by: Colleen Gahrman
Spotswood Public Library
548 Main Street
Spotswood, NJ 08884

9 AM – 12 Noon
sponsored by Westfield Rotary Club
Board of Education Building
Walnut & Elm streets
Westfield, NJ 07090
(908) 232-6807 or (908) 233-0065
wrorden@msn.com

9 AM – 12 Noon
Friends of Wyckoff
Wyckoff Reformed Church
580 Wyckoff Ave
Wyckoff, NJ 07841
info@FriendsOfWyckoff.org