Bikes for Africa Organizer Says Thank You to Sammamish-area Community

Editor's note: This is an email from Mary Trask, the community service director for ARAS Foundation. In early May, the group organized its annual "Bikes for Africa"event. Trask wanted to give this update and thank Sammamish and the surrounding communities for helping.

"I thought your readers might be interested in the results of our bike drive. Volunteers and donors came from all over the Eastside:

Five hundred eighty two bikes, plus parts, were placed into a 40-foot cargo container bound for Ghana, Africa. The container was on site at  where the rainy, windy day did not deter 85 volunteers from showing up and helping to prepare the bikes for shipping by lowering handlebars and seats and assisting in placing the bikes into the container. Many of the volunteers were students, families wanting to volunteer together and local service groups such as the Kiwanis. collected 68 bikes before the drive in a project spearheaded by student Alex Taam. Two Men and a Truck - Movers Who Care, based in Redmond, generously delivered pre-collected bikes from bike shops and local police stations to City Hall the day of the drive. This is the 6th year the ARAS Foundation based in Sammamish has held their annual spring bike drive."