Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Photo
A group of young adults from Bike & Build puts together a fence at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore on Youngstown-Poland Road on Tuesday. Bike & Build is a nonprofit organization that organizes cross-country bicycle trips to benefit affordable housing groups.
By EMMALEE C. TORISK
STRUTHERS
More than two weeks of cycling from Providence, R.I., had brought 23-year-old Louise McCune to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore on Youngstown-Poland Road, where on Tuesday afternoon she sat on a floral-printed couch during a rare break from work.
From that couch and over the sounds of power tools, McCune, who plans to teach English and history to middle-schoolers in her hometown of San Francisco this fall, explained what, exactly, had motivated her cross-country trip.
Yes, she wanted to see the U.S. And, of course, she wanted to “have this great adventure.” But her chief reason for spending 71 days and 3,942 miles traversing the country by bicycle was a desire to further engage with the affordable-housing cause.
McCune is one of 29 young adults between age 18 and 28 who share that same desire and are spending the summer as Bike & Build volunteers. The bicyclists, who raise funds for and execute affordable-housing projects in communities along their route, expect to arrive in Seattle on Aug. 15. Tuesday was their 19th day on the road.
“I wanted to think about and see [the affordable-housing problem] on a national scale,” McCune said. “I hope to learn about the problem on a greater scale than I’ve been thinking about it, then go home as a more informed advocate of affordable housing.”
So far, bicyclists on the Providence to Seattle trip have raised $145,013, according to the organization’s website. Over the past 11 seasons, Bike & Build has donated more than $4.5 million to affordable-housing groups, built for more than 160,000 hours and pedaled more than 7.5 million miles. The nonprofit organization seeks to foster activism and service-mindedness in young people.
Before arriving in Youngstown on Sunday, the bicyclists completed projects in Providence and in Ithaca, N.Y.
The projects the group is tackling at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore differ from those earlier ones, however, as instead of working on homes, members are working on the store, which is the organization’s largest fundraiser, said Colin Penney, program director for Habitat for Humanity. So far, those infrastructure projects have included insulating the walls and building a fenced-in area to store construction materials.
Youngstown — where the group has been staying at St. John’s Episcopal Church and showering at the downtown YMCA — is also the bicyclists’ first two-day stop. They’ll be departing for West Lafayette, Ind., today, with an expected arrival date of July 1. Their next couple of stops are Ames, Iowa, and Yankton, S.D.
McCune noted that the first week of the journey, where the bicyclists set their pace of traveling about 70 miles per day, was challenging for everyone, regardless of experience level. Bike & Build is open to bicyclists of all skill levels, she said, though there are a few requirements.
For one, each participant must raise at least $4,500 — the majority of which is donated to youth-led affordable-housing projects across the country — prior to departure. Participants also must be between age 18 and 25, though leaders, of which there are four on the Providence to Seattle trip, can be as old as 28. They also must complete a certain number of training miles on their new bicycles and a specific number of volunteer hours with a local affordable-housing group.
Almost three-quarters of the trip remains, but both McCune and Zack Peak, a 20-year-old political and social-thought student at the University of Virginia, said they’ve found conversations with people met along the way to be most rewarding.
Peak said he’s also been pleasantly surprised by the generosity of strangers, along with the improvements that have been made, rather quickly, to his bicycling skills. Bike & Build is an experience he would encourage anyone to try.
“It’s intense, but manageable,” Peak said.
Andrea Belbusti, a 26-year-old group leader from Charleston, S.C., explained that the trip is a good, rewarding change of pace for many people, and that those who do participate are pulled together by a common thread to help others.
“On the road, we don’t have a lot of luxuries,” she said. “It makes us really realize the help that we’re bringing to other people, and it makes you think about what’s really important.”