Long Islanders can put their old, used bicycles to good use by donating them locally to Pedals for Progress, an international program that rescues unwanted American bicycles and sends them to communities overseas.

On Saturday, April 4, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., members of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Long Island will accept donations at the Massapequa Public Library, Bar Harbour branch at 40 Harbor Lane, Massapequa Park.

Every year, Americans buy 22 million new bicycles and discard millions of old ones, abandoning many more unused in basements, sheds, and garages. Most of these end up in our already overburdened landfills. Meanwhile, poor people overseas need cheap, non-polluting transportation to get to jobs, markets, customers, and schools. Pedals for Progress has received, processed and donated over 115,000 bicycles, 1,000 used sewing machines and $10.8 million in new spare parts to partner charities in 32 developing world countries. Furthermore, Pedals for Progress promotes bicycle repair businesses in the developing world.

Typically, a community owned nonprofit bike store will get the first containerized cargo shipment for free (about 450 bicycles), but that repair store then has to earn enough money selling the repaired bikes to pay for the next shipment. Each person who donates a bicycle will also be asked to donate $10 to help defray the cost of shipping the bicycles.

To learn more about Pedals for Progress, visit their web site at www.p4p. org . For information about the April 4th collection, call Bette Bass at 516- 606-1400 or Linda Merola at 516-242-2041.

The program is also accepting cash donations from corporate and community sponsors.