David Schweidenback

2000 Laureate

United States

The Rolex Award-winning Pedals-for-Progress (P4P) project stemmed from American David Schweidenback’s experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador in the late 1970s. The 2000 Laureate (born in 1952), president and founder of P4P, realized how the simple bicycle could transform peoples’ lives by improving productivity.

In 1991, working as a contractor and carpenter in New Jersey, he set up the non-profit organization that supplies recycled bicycles, and now sewing machines, to individuals worldwide. To date, P4P has shipped more than 117,000 bicycles and 1,000 sewing machines to 35 developing countries.

Schweidenback has readily shared his business model with others, with the result that there are more than 50 clones of P4P in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia. One group in Montreal has shipped over 35,000 bicycles.

P4P is currently focusing on collecting bikes in the New York City/Philadelphia area, and continuing to expand globally.

Learn about this Laureate’s winning project on rolexawards.com

Recent Posts

Looking back at twenty years, and looking ahead to next twenty.

David Schweidenback
2 comments

During the looming Persian Gulf crisis of 1990, after Iraq invaded Kuwait, demand for my carpentry skills dried to a trickle. I needed work, or at least something to do. I decided that if I couldn’t find gainful employment I could at least volunteer to try to help someone else. I recalled my time in the Peace Corps and one man in Sucia, Ecuador who had changed his life because he gained the mobility of a bicycle. I saw bikes … Read more

Category
General

Treadles for Progress?

David Schweidenback
3 comments

At Pedals for Progress, we recycle bikes. It is the core of our operations and it always will be. But there have been times we’ve shipped other recycled materials overseas, stuff like computer equipment or sports gear. One of these sidelines that’s closest to my heart is our sewing machines program.