What a difference a bike makes…

By P.A. Sévigny, October 24th, 2012

Instead of leaving that old bike on the street where it's bound to end up in the back of an old pick-up truck on its way to the scrap yard where it will eventually be transformed into re-bar for yet another Chinese dam, Montreal's Cyclonordsud is working hard to transform a basic recycling service into a working foreign aid initiative that's already producing outstanding results.
“It's amazing how much something as simple as an old bicycle can make a big difference in the life of the people who need it,” said Cyclonordsud's Glenn Rubinstein.
As the organization's community development co-coordinator, Rubinstein organizes bicycle pick-ups all over the city after which the old 'beaters' are all loaded up in shipping containers and sent to assorted third world countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. As of last Sunday, another lot of old bikes were already being stacked against the wall outside of NDG's Coop La Maison Verte as their donors waited for the organization's volunteers to prepare their tax receipt.
“Last year, we collected over 70 bikes,” said volunteer Sylvie Thibeault who works at the local Caisse Populaire de Notre-Dame-de-Grâce as a community relations coordinator. “It's always fun, and it's especially nice to know how all these bicycles will find another life in another country.”
Aside from its reflection of Montreal's vibrant and growing bike culture, Rubinstein described the organization's logistical problems as relatively minor challenges when compared to the benefits gained once the bicycles finds their new vocation in the third world. Following their initial donation, the NDG bikes will be inspected, repaired and stored in the organization's warehouse until they are ready to be shipped to their final destination. While donors are expected to pay $15 in order to help cover shipping and storage costs, they also receive a tax deductible charity receipt for the bike's market value which will be added to the cash donation.
To their credit, most donors rolled up with rusty old ten-speeds that were taking up space in the garage for years, but at least one donor showed up with a custom-built Klein racing bike which one of the on-site bike mechanics estimated to be worth at least $1,000 on the street and far more if it were to be found in one of the city's top-notch bike stores. As it can cost up to $4,000 (tax included) to store, service and ship a container full of bicycles to their final destination, the Cyclonordsud organization adds another $45 per bicycle to help pay for their transport after which the bikes are then sold by a local organization in order to help defray some of the shipping costs.
“We can easily put some 400 to 450 bikes in a single container,” said Rubinstein. Even so, filling up the containers is still a big job that demands a lot of time and energy from even the most avid of the organization's volunteers. 
According to Rubinstein, Cyclonordsud is working with other partners to bring the NDG bikes to the Holy Cross Fathers who run a school in Caracol, a small town located on the nation's north-eastern coast.
 “The fathers will make sure the right people get the bikes at the right price,” said Rubinstein.
While pointing to a beaten up old Minelli that has seen better days, Rubinstein described how the bike could help some woman carry her vegetables to the market or help a student get to school on time without having to make a six to seven kilometre walk on a daily basis.
“That's the kind of thing that can make a big difference in a young life,” he said.
Ten years after the late Claire Morrissette, Montreal's original cycling activist, organized the city's first bicycle collection, Cyclonordsud has shipped over 40,000 bicycles to 16 countries located in the third world. It now has over 500 volunteers working for the organization on a regular basis with thousands of members and donors who do what they can to keep the city's bicycles off the scrap heap and under someone who really needs them.n