Tuesday October 7
6:30-8:30
at the BNB HUB (284 Amory St.)

Please join us in welcoming Sam (Samantha Wechsler) as our new Executive Director at a meet n' greet reception at the Bikes Not Bombs Hub. We'll have short talks from Carl Kurz, BNB's founder and International Programs Director freshy returned from visits to two projects in Africa, and Ashley Leary, who is a teen BNB Youth Instructor and also an Advisory Board member for the City Heroes program of City Year. Refreshments will be served!

For ten years, Sam worked in varying capacities – fundraising, program development, grant making, public policy and research, project management, and direct service – to expand and improve programming for young people in Boston. More recently, she founded and directed Voces de Cambio (Voices of Change), a writing and photography program for teenage girls in Guatemala, where she lived for nearly three years. Before moving to Guatemala, she served as the Interim Executive Director of the Boston 2:00-to-6:00 After-School Initiative, created by Mayor Thomas M. Menino, to support the expansion of high-quality after-school programs that provide learning and social development opportunities for children and youth. It is hard to imagine an Executive Director with a better mix of skills and experience directly related to the issues Bikes Not Bombs addresses in our youth and international work. Welcome Sam!

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We also want to thank Kim Foltz for completing her tremendous service to Bikes Not Bombs. Kim writes, "It is with a mix of sadness and excitement that I write to share the news that I am formally stepping down as Acting Director of Bikes Not Bombs. It has been an incredible honor to have been such an integral part of the Bikes Not Bombs community, first as a member of the Board of Directors in 2002; then as Board Chair from 2003-2007; and, in the last year and a half, as Acting Director.

"The last three years have been a time of significant growth and transition for Bikes Not Bombs, as we have moved into our new office and bike shop locations and undergone several changes in leadership. The focus in my tenure as Acting Director has been to provide the stability necessary to ensure that Bikes Not Bombs continues to build on its 24 years of work connecting big picture issues like global climate change, international development, youth training and leadership, and peace, while making concrete changes in people’s lives." We wish Kim the best in her graduate program in Public Planning at MIT.