25 September, 2017
There will be a bicycle collection at St. John The Evangelist Parish, 20 Church Street in Hopkinton on Sunday October 1 from 9 AM to 1 PM behind the parish center.
Do you have unwanted bicycles sitting around you garage or basement? St. John’s Parish Gobal Mission Apostolate is working with the Hopkinton/Ashalnd Chapter of the Knights of Columbus to hold a bike collection, in conjunction with the Bikes Not Bombs (BNB) program in Jamaica Plain.
Since 1984, BNB has sent over 55,000 bikes to 14 countries in the South America, Central America, the Caribbean and Africa. Donated bikes directly benefit communities in the developing world as well as teens in Boston through their Earn-A-Bike and Girls in Action programs. Also, their recycling efforts have saved thousands of bicycles from ending up in landfills.
In developing countries, bicycles are a very important source of transportation--they improve access to everything--water, food, employment opportunities, schools and healthcare. Bikes are often converted to haul farm produce or other goods to market. With bikes, street vendors are able to travel to more locations and sell more products resulting in increased income. Bikes open up educational opportunities for adults and children to travel to schools distant from their homes. Also, bikes are often converted into pedal-powered machines that shell and grind grain, power rope-pumps for well water extraction and de-pulp coffee. Bike repair shops stimulate local economies as well.
BNB requests a donation of $10 per bike, to help defray the costs of international shipping, bike storage, and/or youth programs that get the bikes into positive use again. BNB will of course accept bikes without this donation.
To read more about BNB’s programs visit their website at www.bikesnotbombs.org.
