Be sure to watch CNN between 8 and 9 AM EST on Friday, July 25th to see Pedals for Progress founder and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer David Schweidenback (Ecuador 77-80) highlighted as a 2008 CNN Hero.
Pedals for Progress takes bikes that would otherwise be discarded, reconditions them, and ships them to developing countries where they are highly useful as cheap, non-polluting transportation in places where reliable means of commuting are otherwise scarce. Since 1991, P4P has rescured over 115,000 bikes and 1,000 sewing machines and $11M in spare parts from overburdened U.S. lanfulls and shipped them to impoverished people in 32 countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Pedals for Progress seeks not only to enhance the productivity of low-income workers overseas by providing environmentally sound transportation and but also to foster in the North American public an understanding of and a channel for responding to the transportation needs of the poor in developing countries.
Pedals for Progress was inspired by David Schweidenback's time in the Peace Corps, which he spent in Ecuador working as a land surveyor and living with a hunter-gatherer tribe. During his service he realized that people's ability to get to work, obtain services, and access resources was limited because they walked everywhere and that bicycles would drastically improve their quality of life. From this experience Pedals for Progress was born and David Schweidenback is now being honored for his efforts.
Click here to listen to David Schweidenback talk about his life as a Peace Corps entrepreneur in this podcast on SocialEdge.
Tune into CNN on Friday morning or set your TIVO and keep watching CNN.com to vote for David as the most outstanding CNN Hero of 2008.
Below is the full schedule of the P4P spot on CNN:
CNN USA: Friday 7/25 8-9AM, 11AM-12PM; Saturday 7/26 11AM-12PM, 5-6PM
HEADLINE NEWS: Friday 7/25 7:30-8AM, 2:30-3PM, 5-6PM
CNN INTERNATIONAL: Friday 7/25 2AM, 7AM, 12PM, 8PM
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