By Dave Schweidenbeck
Spring 2025 Newsletter

I would like to speak to the significance of Pedals for Progress and Sewing Peace. I have always felt that those of us who work for P4P/SP are insignificant.  While we’re collecting and shipping bikes, we’re like workers on a factory floor or laborers in a field. We are warehousemen moving thousands of pounds of steel. We are cogs in the machine behind the scenes.

The significant people are the donors who bring in those bicycles and sewing machines to P4P and the final recipients who have an opportunity. Opportunity in the developing world is a very scarce commodity. It is that opportunity for success through hard work that we encourage.

You need the stamina in the morning to get up and go to work. In all economic discussions, we always come down to the word “go”. The more you can facilitate the movement of goods and services the greater opportunity for economic development, and nothing is more cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and successful in developing nations than a bicycle. So thank you to all the donors who have helped us help someone somewhere else; it really does matter.

At a time when the US government is dramatically decreasing humanitarian aid into the developing world it’s more important than ever that there are organizations like Pedals for Progress who are working on the ground, demonstrating that the American people are good and care about helping the less fortunate. Our goal is to give motivated people worldwide a leg up, not a hand out. P4P is significant and our mission needs to continue.