By Martha Clarvoe
Fall 2022 Newsletter
[Editor’s note: In August we got this email on our google business site:
I am hoping to hold a bicycle collection in Oneonta, NY, and to deliver bikes to a collection site for Pedals for Progress. Trying to make contact with P4P organizers. Can you help me?
– Martha Clarvoe
When I saw this mail, I had a couple of thoughts. First, Oneonta is a 3-hour drive from our trailers in Glen Gardner, New Jersey; that is a loooong drive. Second, a P4P/SP collection is a non-trivial exercise in publicity, organization, scheduling, volunteer-wrangling, bike-mechanic skills, weight-lifting, truck-packing (assuming you have a truck!), and freight hauling.
I was very happy to get this generous offer from Martha. But I had some doubts. What I said publicly at the time was, “Thanks, Martha. I will put you in touch with Alan so you can work on the logistics.” What I was thinking privately was, “This woman has no idea what she’s letting herself in for.” I could not have been more wrong.
A great big thank-you to Martha and all the other folks who made the collection so successful. Here’s her story.]
Collection Number 1: 2007
In 2007 David Petri, a local collector and seller of used bikes and bike parts, asked if I could find a home for used bikes he couldn’t sell.
I found Pedals for Progress through my contacts in recycling programs here in Otsego County, New York. I had been active for many years advocating for cycling, and recycling programs, especially with the Otsego County Conservation Association.
We collected bikes and sewing machines in the summer and fall of 2007, then my friend Barbara Harman and I drove them to New Jersey and delivered them to Dave Schweidenback. Here we are in a 15-year-old photo.
Collection Number 2: 2022
In all the years since 2007 I had been getting the P4P newsletter and feeling a little guilty that I hadn’t done another collection but I was busy with other recycling projects and my husband and I were working on a building rehab project. But then David Petri bugged me again about getting rid of used bikes. I had a little trouble finding a contact at P4P, but I eventually got through and was put in touch with Alan, the new president. Alan gave me lots of advice about running a collection: processing the bikes, packing them into the truck using plywood for a second layer, publicity, …
We ran the collection through the Otsego ReUse Center, a program of The Arc Otsego, a non-profit that provides support, services and advocacy to individuals with intellectual and other developmental disabilities. Faith Tiemann, who does publicity for Arc Otsego, arranged for a spot on a local TV station, and for publicity on the Arc Otsego facebook page.
After we started publicizing the collection, woman after woman approached me with either a sewing machine or a bicycle and said they were pleased to donate to this wonderful cause.
We scheduled the collection for October 29th, and started the day with 13 bicycles, a bike pump, a bike horn that sounds like Clarabell’s horn, and a very generous check delivered by a couple from Saratoga Springs. David Petri donated 10 bikes and extra seats.
In an amazing coincidence, Lars Schweidenback, the son of P4P founder David Schweidenback, lives just down the road. Lars had helped at bike collections for many years when he was younger, so had invaluable expertise in processing the bikes for shipping. To fit as many bikes as possible into the truck and then into the shipping containers, we had to remove pedals, and turn handlebars down and sideways.
Invention of an Industrial Strength Pedal-Removal System
One of our early arrivals, one of Dave Petri’s bikes, a 70-year-old Schwinn, had a pedal that was really rusty. Despite lots of elbow grease and WD40, by 11:15 Lars had still not been able to remove this pedal.
My 12 year old grandson, Oliver Clarvoe, had recently arrived to help climb into “Mom’s Attic” at the front of the 15-foot U-Haul truck and run a rope around the machines on the shelf and then through sewing machine case handles to secure the machines. Oliver was listening to Bill Ralston, one of the volunteers, and Lars discuss the option of using a pipe to help remove the rusted-on pedal. Ralston went off for a fence-post driver he happened to have in his car(?!?) Oliver disappeared and came back with an 8-foot by 2-inch pipe, which he used to demonstrate some weight-lifting techniques.
The three of them proceeded to slide the fence-post driver over the pedal wrench, then slide the pipe over the crank arm of the other pedal, then apply severe torque with the pipe. The creaking and aching noises of the pedal being released was the sweet sound of success.
Mission Accomplished
We had a steady stream of donations. It was a long day. Our collection was scheduled to run between 9am and 4:30pm, much longer than the customary 3-hour P4P collection. At the end of the day we packed up the truck for the trip to New Jersey the next day, Sunday, October 30th.
I had arranged with Karen Sullivan, former Otsego County Solid Waste and Planning Director, to make the drive with me to New Jersey. A chance for us to catch up and I knew it would make the trip more entertaining. On Sunday morning we met at the truck, scraped the ice off the windshield, and made the 3-hour drive to the P4P containers in Glen Gardner. Alan and Michael met us there, we unloaded the 72 bikes and 29 sewing machines and headed back to Oneonta. Another long day.
Many thanks to the exceptional volunteers who made the collection such a success: Bill Hardy, Shelley Williams, and Ryan Eldred of Otsego ReUse Center; Faith Tiemann of The Arc Otsego, who helped so much with publicity; Lars and Barbara Schweidenback, who brought a wealth of expertise to the table; Oliver Clarvoe, the youngest volunteer; Bill Ralston, who apparently drives around with a fence-post driver in his trunk; and Karen Sullivan, who made the drive with me for the drop-off in New Jersey.
It was obvious to me at the beginning of the collection that I didn’t have enough average volunteers but I did have exceptional volunteers and a supportive community to fill the truck before closing time. Thank you everyone in Otsego County, NY, and surrounding communities for your generosity to Pedals for Progress and Sewing Peace.