News Pedals 4 Progress: Changing lives in Third World countries, and in Vinton

Vinton-Shellsburg High School students learned this spring about how providing lo-cost bicycles to people in poor countries changes their lives. At the same time, their teachers watched how helping others has changed them.

The Pedals 4 Progress bike drive on Saturday concluded several months of activities and lessons for the students, as well as the St. Mary’s Catholic churches in Vinton and Urbana. Several students and church members spent the morning in the church parking lot in Vinton, preparing hundreds of bicycles for shipment either to Guatemala or Vietnam.

As area residents arrived with trucks and even at least one horse trailer loaded with used bicycles, the students and other volunteers unloaded and inspected them, removed the pedals and loosened and folded down handlebars, and squeezed them tightly into a semi trailer.

The bikes will head to Dubuque, and then to New Jersey, where they will be shipped to either Central America or the Far East.

Local involvement in the P4P began when St. Mary’s church member Nick Weber saw an article about the bike project in “Witness,” the Catholic magazine. He began speaking to others, including Eric Upmeyer. Upmeyer decided it would be a good project for his Personal and Professional Communications class.

The students quickly agreed. Soon they were researching P4P and preparing to discuss it with the V-S School Board as well as the VSHS school body.

The students saw on the P4P web site how people in some Third World countries walk an hour and a half to a water source, or several miles to a job. They learned how bicycles can change the life of a family in a poor country.

Tim Weitzel knows this too; he has seen it with his own eyes. Wietzel, of Dubuque, is a volunteer coordinator for P4P in Iowa. He has personally traveled to many areas where people receive bicycles donated by Iowans.

“A bicycle is as important to them as a truck is to us here in Iowa,” Weitzel said Saturday, as he stood in the semi that students were loading with bikes.  

In the five years that Weitzel has volunteered for P4P, Iowans have donated 2200 bicycles as well as many sewing machines.

Weitzel said that P4P changes the world in many ways, and that many people join the effort because they strongly believe in one of the project’s goals.

“Some people get involved in P4P for environmental reasons, to keep these old bikes out of landfills,” said Weitzel. “Others believe in providing economic opportunity throughout the world, or in social justice.”

Weitzel said he joined P4P for another reason: He loves bicycles and wants others to have access to them. He rides his own bike 3,500 miles each year. When he heard about P4P, he decided to help others have the opportunity to ride, as well.

Business model

P4P does not give bikes away, Weitzel explained. Instead, it sells the bikes for $10 each to businesses in each of the countries where P4P ships those bikes. Those entrepreneurs are required to give P4P a detailed business plan before receiving (for free) their first shipment of bikes. Those people then sell the bikes in shops in their country. The income from the sale of the bikes helps pay them and their employees, as well as provide money to purchase another shipment of bicycles.

While the cost of the bikes to customers varies from nation to nation, depending on several factors including the quality of the bike, the program makes the cost affordable to people in those nations. The cost, however, has to be high enough to allow the businesses that sell them to be self-sustaining.

“A basic bicycle might cost $10, while a high quality one may cost $30 in those countries,” explained Weitzel.

Impact on students

VSHS students learned these lessons and shared them with the school board as well as their fellow students.

“The students learned how to make a presentation to the school board, and how they would have to change that presentation to share it with the student body,” said Upmeyer.

The students also spent hours raising funds for the project, by baking and selling cookies.

On Saturday, they presented their profits to Weitzel. They gave him an envelope containing $341, although the total donation will be closer to $375. The St. Mary’s church members also raised more than $600, bringing the area’s total donation to more than $1,000.

Weitzel, who has spent much of the morning teasing and joking with the students, thanked them for their work and the money they raised, and told them they are making a big difference in the world.

Upmeyer said he watched has participating in the project – a first for his class – has impacted the students. He said some shy students spoke in public for the first time as they shared their desire to help others. Other students who often find it hard to engage in classroom discussions found it easy to work with others on the P4P effort.

The students also learned how that the very same bikes they use for recreation or convenience can change the quality of life for people in poor countries. They saw how some people have modified bicycles to power pumps to draw water from wells. Other bicycles are used to haul water or even as two-wheeled concrete haulers.

Saturday’s bike drive concludes the program, although the students will spend this week discussing and writing about the project. Weitzel also said that in the near future, the students may be able to see photos of the bikes they collected, and how they were put to use in another country. 

For more information, see the P4P web site.