Imagine for a moment that you move to a new country with a predominate language that you don’t know. On your person are all your belongings and coins only from your home country — not usable in this new land. The new country and its state gives you 90 days of help before expecting you to seek a job, interview for that position, and be chosen. In order to retain it, you have to figure out how to use Tampa’s inadequate public transportation system, and you have no car.
Our refugee project team is launching an easy way for PCPC to help those families that have come to Tampa, a city with limited public transportation and a society driven by cars.
The bike collection project goals: each month this year, PCPC offers a donation of 1 bike, 1 lock, and 1 helmet to refugee families in need. If for one year we accomplished this, we would be able to serve at least 12 families with transportation to work, groceries, and other needs the children may have, like parent-teacher conferences.
Your donation of a bike could be a used adult bike that is sitting in your garage, with no one riding it, in excellent condition. Or, it could be a donation of a new bike at $200, purchased by writing a check to PCPC and in the memo section stating “Refugee Bike Project.”
For a $35 donation, you can offer a family a superb bike lock that will ensure the safety of their “vehicle”.
Or, for a donation of $16, you can assist the rider’s safety by offering a helmet. Again, that can be done by writing a check to PCPC and in the memo section stating “Refugee Bike Project.”
These are all adult biking items. By empowering the parents in families, we can help their children.
Questions? Sally Speer sallycspeer@gmail.com and Lauren Dicks laurendavisdicks@gmail.com. Or, to meet for a cup of coffee to discuss this opportunity further, call Sally @ 813-835-7225. Or Lauren @ 813-708-4593.