PITTSFIELD â Generous Berkshire County residents have gifted 26 repurposed bicycles to adults and children in an African village for their own means of personal transportation.
The bikes had been donated to the Old Stone Mill Center, where they were retrofitted with wooden racks so residents of Bikie and two neighboring villages in the Republic of Congo can haul 100 pounds or more of crops and goods to market, get children to school or handle passengers.
Volunteers on Sunday morning loaded the adapted bikes into a shipping container parked at Affordable Self Storage on Fourth St. The pedal-powered transports and other repurposed household items will cost $4,200, paid by four individuals, to ship from New York City to Bikie, a nearly two month journey, according to Pauline Dongala.