PODS® Of San Francisco And Mike's Bikes Smash Donation Expectations For Africa Bike Program

SAN FRANCISCO - Oct. 24, 2013 - PRLog -- For many Africans, a bicycle is the only way to get to work, a store, or across town. But bikes and their parts are chronically in short supply. To alleviate this shortage, 825 bicycles will be shipped to the continent, thanks to a donation drive byPODS^® of San Franciscoand Mikes Bikes as the Bay Area bicycle retailer collects donations for their ongoing Africa Bike Drive program.

PODS^® containers were used to collect donated bicycles at Mike’s Bikes stores throughout Northern California. The new and used bikes are being sent Mike’s Bikes Sister Shops in Namibia, Lesotho, and Botswana, improving everyday life for Africans, one bike at a time.

“Our past partnerships with Mike’s Bikes have been very successful at delivering much-needed bicycles to support and build small bike shops and new entrepreneurs in Africa,” said Hill Terra, Territory Manager of PODS of San Francisco. “We are thrilled that we nearly doubled the number of donations from last year.”

In 2011, PODS teamed up for the first time with Mike’s Bikes, the largest independent bicycle retailer in the U.S., helping them to collect more than 500 donated bicycles.

“The bike drive went better than I had ever thought. This drive generated about 825 bikes, which far exceeds previous years,” said Ken Martin, CEO of Mike’s Bikes. “We have one full shipping container sailing now to our facility in Botswana, and we’ll send them in batches to our sister bike shops.”

Mike’s Bikes began the Africa Sister Shops to build a self-sustaining supply of transportation bikes in Africa and to promote economic growth by teaching African entrepreneurs how to run a bike business. Mike’s Bikes sends donated bikes and start-up funding to African countries, and provides mentoring to the owners of its Africa Sister Shops to help create African job opportunities. Bicycles are often the only reliable form of transportation in Africa, where roads can be rugged (or non-existent), and automobiles and fuel are outside the reach of most residents.

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About PODS Enterprises, Inc.

Founded in 1998, PODS currently provides moving and storage services to a population of more than 250 million consumers and businesses, in 48 U.S. states, Canada, Australia and the UK, through its company-owned and independent franchise network. To date, the PODS network has completed more than 400,000 long-distance relocations, exceeded 2.0 million deliveries and has over 145,000 PODS® containers in service.

About Mike’s Bikes

Mike's Bikes was founded in 1964 in the heart of Marin County, and was home to some of the first mountain bikes in existence. Today Mike's Bikes has grown to become the Largest Local Bike Shop in America with eleven stores throughout Northern California, and they stay true to their mission of "getting more people on bikes" in everything they do. Visit www.mikesbikes.com or call 888-696-BIKE.

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