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Youth pedals for his passion

Trip to Arctic to connect north and south
Kierra Jones

Graham May, passionate environmentalist and long-time Powell River resident, has done it again. Last year, May cycled across Canada. Last spring, he rode across Turkey. Last week, he set out from Powell River to ride to the Arctic.

The trip, which is called Journey to the Midnight Sun, will end in Inuvik, Northwest Territories. Along the route, the four bikers involved, May, Saskia Vaisey, Gavin Rea and Jessica Magonet, will be running workshops with youth across the provinces and territories.

The trip is under the auspices of GrassRoutes, a group May co-founded that holds biking as a means for social change.

The goal, explained May, is to breach the divide between youth in the North and South over climate change.

“Canadians generally don’t think about [the North] as part of Canada,” said May, adding that the North’s situation is overshadowed by other environmental crises in Calgary and Toronto.

His group plans to make this connection happen in several ways.

“We try to put a human face on the Arctic if we can,” he said. Some tactics are giving southern youth the opportunity to ask a question of a northern youth, and having southern youth participate in traditional Arctic games like leg wrestling. The presenters also use their personal stories to inspire the youth to action.

The team has already led two workshops in Vancouver. Plus, they presented to School District 47’s Leadership Ecology Adventure Program on Tuesday, July 9.

May and his team will be working with a Whitehorse-based organization Bringing Youth Towards Equality (BYTE), which has 10 years’ experience leading workshops for youth in the area.

“There’s a legacy of white southerners going to the North and pretending to help,” said May. “We want to make sure that if we’re communicating the stories of the youth in the North, that they’re authentic stories; that they’re not done through our southern lens.”

May added that partnering with BYTE was a key part of the group’s strategy. “It’s one of the things that makes me comfortable doing this,” he said.

Money raised by GrassRoutes will go toward BYTE’s Purple Bike Project, a co-op that provides cheap bikes to northern youth.

The team plans to complete the 1,800-kilometre route by late August but, according to May, scheduling is a challenge.

“It’s hilarious some of the stuff we’ve come up against,” he said. Since the North is so sparsely populated, they’ll have to carry their food supplies for up to two weeks at a time. They have also learned to mail food to themselves so they can pick it up at the post office.

“In terms of health care, in terms of bike repair, we have to be completely self-sufficient,” explained May. The group is taking emergency beacons, and is considering taking rifles in case of bears.

They have also been gathering advice, through blogs and personal encounters, from people who have biked the same route before.

Once they reach Inuvik, the riders plan to dip their bikes in the Mackenzie Delta, as they will not yet be at the Arctic Ocean, and then fly back to university. May is entering his third year of environmental studies at Mount Allison University in Nova Scotia.

This isn’t the first time May has been involved with Arctic issues. In the middle of the team’s Canada tour last summer, May attended a UN conference on sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to lobby for polar sustainability. He plans on doing his thesis on the subject as well.

The team will be filming a documentary during their current trip to raise awareness about Arctic issues. It will be posted afterward on their website and YouTube channel. They will also be updating a blog throughout their journey.

May said he has learned a lot from his bike trips, including skills like how to approach sponsors, how to write a press release and how to design a website. He has also had much personal growth.

“One of the biggest realizations that I had halfway through my bike ride across Canada last year was that I get more out of it than anyone else,” he said.

GrassRoutes has also received colossal media coverage. When May and his team biked across Turkey to support women entrepreneurs, they had more than 50 news stories published about them in less than 10 days. Five of these were in national newspapers.

“The project started with three guys around a campfire saying, ‘I want to bike across Canada,’” said May. “Now, it’s touched three continents. We’ve talked to over 1,700 youth and we’ve raised over $19,000. It’s had a big impact around the world.”

What is most important for May though, is having his hometown behind him. “It’s been really great to have the support of hometown,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing for me, that when I come home, people are excited about it here in Powell River.”

Readers can follow the Journey to the Midnight Sun on the Grassroutes website or here.