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Community Corner

Church Accepting Bicycle Donations for Needy

Potomac United Methodist Church is accepting bikes for the Bikes for the World donation day.

The Potomac United Methodist Church is gearing up for a busy Saturday morning with its fifth annual Bikes For the World donation day. 

Church member John Sissala, who organized the church's Bikes For The World, BFW collection, said he hopes to collect 140 bicycles on Saturday, Sept. 25, which will be repaired in the area. The BFW will not only be collecting bikes, but also bicycle parts, tools, sewing machines and cell phones.

The program, which is sponsored by the Washington Area Bicyclists Association, receives about 10,000 bikes a year, and the bicycles are sent to 11 countries including Panama, Afghanistan and Ghana, Sissala said.

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The donated bicycles provide affordable transportation to people getting to work and school. Also, the program provides health and education services to low-income residents who live in rural areas.

"Every year we think we clean out the neighborhood," joked Sissala, who has already started receiving donations for this year.

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The BFW will be accepting donations on Saturday, Sept. 25 from 9 a.m. until noon. To ask about donations or to volunteer, call 301-340-8107 or e-mail Sissala.

In addition to the bicycle donations, the Potomac United Methodist Church will have a community yard sale for the first time in ten years.  The sale will begin at 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. in the church's parking lot on Saturday, Sept. 25. 

The church makes its money at the yard sale by renting out spaces in the church parking lot. Whatever is sold goes to the people who rent the spaces, but the church makes a set amount based on the amount of spaces sold.

The money the church raises in the community yard sale goes to help fund mission work the youth program does. Each year, the church's youth program goes to a poor rural area in North Carolina to do projects.

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