Helping Hands: Affordable housing activist to cycle through Barstow

Thirty-one young adults (eight men and 23 women) with a group known as “Bike & Build” are bicycling their way toward Barstow and scheduled to arrive here, Sunday, August 10 after staying the night before in Baker.

The bicyclists are spending their summer traveling from Boston, Mass., to Santa Barbara, Calif. raising money and awareness for affordable housing causes. They began traveling June 12. They leave Barstow bright and early Monday, Aug. 11, headed for Palmdale, Santa Clarita, Santa Paula and then Santa Barbara.

The group will have been traveling for more than two months and will have help build affordable housing in nine locations, including Lawrence, Mass., and Flagstaff Ariz. In order to participate in the trip, each rider must raise at least $4,000 to help fund student-led affordable housing efforts nationwide.

“Bike & Build is an innovative organization that encourages young adults to get involved in an exciting way. Riders are motivated and driven to succeed and these are just the type of young people we need leading the way to eradicate poverty housing,” said Executive Director Amelia Hanley.

The program offers seven trips each summer all departing from cities on the Eastern Seaboard and ending in four West Coast destinations. On bicycles, the 18 to 25 year olds will see first-hand the affordable housing needs in this country and meet with local officials and community members along the way. They also give safety tips on biking.

Based in New York City, Bike & Build is a non-profit organization that encourages young adults to address the country’s affordable housing crisis through organizing cross-country bicycle trips. Participants support those efforts with fundraising and building. Since 2003, Bike & Build has contributed $1.1 million to housing groups to fund projects planned and executed in the United States and motivated over 500 young adult volunteers. For more information, visit www.bikeandbuild.org or call (718) 599-5925.

In Barstow the group will be hosted by the First Congregational Church, UCC and Desert Manna, conveniently located with each facility bordering one side on the City’s Second Avenue parking lot. Desert Manna will provide space for sleeping bags for any overflow and also provide a very early Monday morning breakfast. Other activities for Sunday are being arranged and Helping Hands will give you notice of that in the Aug. 5 article.

Chairing details for Barstow’s part in the over-night-stop is the church pastor, the Rev. Dr. Carol Ziegler. Call her at 256-3141 for information.
This is the first year that Bike & Build has been routed through Barstow. Arrangements to be hospitable and provide a “cool” reception for these 31 bikers here on a hot day are yet to be developed. The search is on for ideas and volunteers. The travelers, using different rates of speed, will arrive at various times. They should be hot and tired and may arrive with a variety of individual differences in the amount of energy left. They also want to meet people and hear about Barstow in relationship to affordable housing. Does anyone have ideas for the late afternoon or early evening for: Who?, What?, Why? If so, please call Ziegler at 256-3141.

ABOUT THE WRITER:
Helen Bendure is a correspondent for the Desert Dispatch She can be contacted at rimrock83@aol.com