Bikes for Cambodia

CLICK HERE to open slideshow in new window.

In the fall of 2008, Pearson Education ELT employees in White Plains, New York, initiated a “bike drive” to collect money to purchase bikes for school children in Cambodia. In the area outside of Phnom Penh, bicycles are often the only means of transportation for Cambodian children attempting to get to school. In a two-month period, Pearson employees raised over $1500, and the Pearson Foundation matched each employee donation. Between the donations and the company match, the White Plains office now has enough money ($3000) to buy more than 50 bicycles for children in Cambodia who need them. Not content to give money alone, Pearson employees and their friends and families created bike “license plates” for the kids to attach to their bikes. Fanciful, diverse, and appealing, these small wooden plaques are works of art in themselves—and a testament to the heart and creativity of the Pearson employees in White Plains. To purchase and distribute the bikes, Pearson Education has teamed up with a charitable, non-denominational organization, Jewish Helping Hands. On February 14, Rabbi Joel Soffin will be traveling to Cambodia to dedicate two schools and an orphanage. He has kindly agreed to purchase the bikes for the Pearson Foundation and distribute them to needy school children. Based on Rabbi Soffin’s schedule, he will also try to take photographs of the children with their bikes and license plates so that each donor and artist has the satisfaction of seeing the fruits of this office-wide effort.