collection is this Saturday (4/24) from 10am – 4pm
at Washington-Monroe High School
on SE 14th and Stark.
This Saturday, Portlander Jenny Leonard hopes to collect 400 used bikes and send them to South Africa in a shipping container. The event comes after over a year of planning and after Leonard was inspired by a 16-year old South African girl named Mercy.
Leonard met Mercy during a year of studying abroad in rural South Africa while a student at Reed College. She says she took transportation for granted until she realized Mercy walked three hours each way to get to class. “That’s six hours a day spent walking compared to my 20 minute round trip bike ride.”
Inspired by her experience abroad, Leonard connected with the non-profit Bicycles for Humanity and become the leader of the Portland chapter. Launched in January 2009, she had raised $7,000 by February of this year – enough to pay for a shipping container to South Africa.
Now she needs to fill that container with bikes and she’s asking Portland to help her out. The collection event is this Saturday (4/24) from 10am-4pm at Washington-Monroe High School on SE 14th and Stark.
You can learn more about Leonard and get the latest updates on this project via her blog.