From beach cleanups to school vegetable gardens, Megan Fleck, SOA Headquarters’ Eco-Friendly Program lead, is a champion of retailers’ environmental community activities. She’s also active in an eco-friendly program in her hometown, saving bicycles from landfills and encouraging residents to explore the community on two wheels.
Over the past eight years, Fleck has worked with the Collingswood, NJ, Bike Share Program, an organization that “up-cycles” donated bikes and rents them out to residents. Unlike programs in larger cities that rent bikes by the hour, Collingswood Bike Share bikes are rented by the year. The $25 annual membership fee covers both use and repairs throughout the year. The program’s bikes are made from donated bikes of varying sizes, styles, and vintages, and all receive a splash of bright green paint to allow for easy recognition and prevent theft.
“Collingswood Bike Share is a great program, and I am so proud of all we have accomplished,” says Fleck. “Not only does it promote recycling by ‘upcycling’ bikes that would have otherwise been landfilled, it also encourages a positive and healthy lifestyle for its members. At last count, we had more than 800 bicycles out on the road — which equates to more than 7 percent of eligible residents renting a bike. While other volunteers work on the bicycle repairs and maintenance, I handle much of the customer service and bicycle painting.”
Collingswood is very much a traditional small town with a vibrant “main street” that hosts a wide variety of businesses. In such an environment, walking or biking to local businesses is convenient and something the Collingswood Bike Share encourages.
Fleck shares two-wheel enthusiasm with several eco-friendly retailers. Patriot and Sommers Subaru offer loaner bikes to service customers. There’s also Mitchell Subaru, part of Mitchell Auto Group, the first auto dealer to earn the League of American Bicyclists’ gold bicycle-friendly business rating.