November 2, 2023
Bikes Not Bombs Deputy Director Mike Arkin and Bike Donation Coordinator Sara Gonzalez on Friday, Oct. 13, at the organization’s Four Corners warehouse – where volunteers helped to fill a shipping container with more than 200 bikes bound for El Salvador. Arkin said it marks the re-opening of shipping routes after the pandemic, and they’ve filled four containers over the last four months.
Seth Daniel photo
The Bikes Not Bombs organization filled yet another shipping container with bicycles, bike parts, and apparel late last week at its Harvard Street warehouse – this time destined for El Salvador – and celebrated a return to the organization’s original mission of shipping bikes around the world after such activities were shut down during the pandemic.
While Bike Not Bombs has long been headquartered in Jamaica Plain, they have also held a shared warehouse space on Harvard Street in Four Corners for more than a decade. On Harvard Street, they have conducted the organization’s root mission, shipping donated bikes to developing nations via long-time partners.
“This is a great moment for a lot of reasons, but it is symbolic of the re-opening of the shipping routes and the rekindling of the partnerships we have around the world,” said deputy director Mike Arkin. “You also can’t ignore the effect this has on sustainability and climate change. All this aluminum and rubber and metal in these bikes is being diverted from landfills …They all still have life and still have a use.”
Donation coordinator Sara Gonzalez said volunteers were at work all last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to get the bikes ready at the warehouse, and then load them in the shipping container to be sent to their El Salvadoran partner, CESTA. Approximately 200 to 400 bicycles, parts and apparel were loaded into the container by volunteers. It is the third container they’ve been able to ship in the last four months, when shipping routes re-opened. Last summer, they filled a container that was shipped to Kenya.
“Our roots are in shipping bikes across the world, our first partner being Nicaragua,” said Gonzalez. “As we’ve evolved, some of our members say the ‘Not Bombs’ aspect has given way to become a tool of cultivating opportunities. Bikes can be a tool of prosperity in developing areas.”
The warehouse is not open to the public but does take donations of bicycles that are in good shape, and does welcome volunteers to help fill containers when such efforts are announced. For more information, go online to bikesnotbombs.org.
