Pedaling affordable housing

It is nothing new to see bicyclists pedaling through Saratoga as the area is on both the Continental Divide Trail and Trans-America routes. Just recently, however, the Platte Valley Christian Center hosted over 30 bicyclists who are making their way from Yorktown, Va. to Astoria, Ore. as they work to raise awareness about affordable housing.

"Bike & Build is a non-profit that organizes cross country cycling trips to raise money and awareness for affordable housing and, sort of as a side mission, we like to engage young adults in lifetime civic engagement," said Paul Dodson, one of the group leaders.

Each year, Bike & Build sends groups along up to four predetermined routes with three of them being cross country routes through northern, central and southern United States. The fourth route, Drift West, is a regional route lasting three weeks and starts in Portland, Ore. and ends in Bellingham, Wash.

"Basically, what our days look like, it's mostly riding. We usually average 75 to 80 miles a day to get across country and then every fourth or fifth day we stop in a community and work on a build site there. So, we've worked with a whole variety of different organizations," Dodson said.

Traveling east to west, the group has already biked across most of the contiguous United States and has been involved in helping build affordable housing for a number of different communities.

"In St. John's, Kan. we worked with an economic development organization, which was definitely an interesting perspective, especially in a rural environment," said Dodson. "It was really interesting in Kentucky, especially in Hazard and McKee. We had two build days there and they're both coal towns. So, seeing sort of how they have adapted to their new economies and how they're trying to rehabilitate their brand to be tourism cities was really interesting."

The stop in Saratoga didn't involve any type of build, but the schedule for the central route includes builds in Lander and Jackson.

"We're going to be working at the Habitat of the Greater Tetons there and that's actually on a larger development," Dodson said.

David Mog, one of the 31 members of the group biking through the central United States, says he has found the experience empowering. According to Mog, he had heard about Bike & Build through friends of friends in college and had already been involved in helping out with Habitat for Humanity programs.

"I did week long habitat trips through Ohio state and that volunteering for a week and being part of the grassroots was really cool to me," said Mog. "I think it's been very empowering because, as you go through each community, you meet the members that you're helping or organizations and you can definitely tell the appreciation they have for what you're doing because some of these communities are a lot smaller and might not get the same light as a larger city where they have a ton of people that can be hands on. So, us coming through might improve a timeline of a project by four weeks because we have 31 hands."

Having left from Yorktown on May 29, the group is expected to arrive in Astoria on Aug. 11. According to Dodson, when he was contacting previous hosts before the ride, the Platte Valley Christian Center was on the list as it had hosted the year before. Due to the excellent experience the previous group had, the group leaders felt comfortable staying at the Christian Center again this year.