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Cycling troupe delivers sustainability message

Performers aim to inspire youth-led action

A group of 13 young people from across the country have been pedalling the hilly terrain of Canada’s West Coast since early September, performing a play entitled Cycling Through Change in communities along the way. The group is delivering its positive message at Brooks Secondary, Westview Elementary and Kelly Creek Community schools this week.

The cyclists are volunteers on the West Coast Tour, a team of ambassadors for environmental sustainability and social justice on wheels, organized by national charity The Otesha Project. Starting in Vancouver, moving throughout the Lower Mainland, back to Vancouver and up the Sunshine Coast, over to Vancouver Island and down to Victoria, they’re cycling 1,000 kilometres of hilly coastal terrain over two months. They are armed with an inspiring message: “You and I can create extraordinary change through the power of our daily actions.”

Since its inception in 2002, the youth-led charity uses theatre, workshops and educational cycling tours to mobilize people across Canada to create local and global change through their daily lifestyle and consumption choices. Otesha has performed to more than 150,000 audience members and won awards for its innovative and effective youth engagement programs.

Cycling Through Change is a comedic and inspiring play showing the story of average Canadians who are choosing to be extraordinary. By the end of its tour, over 4,000 audience members will have explored what ignites individuals to take action, and what challenges and rewards are encountered along the way.

The members of the travelling theatre troupe strive to model a mobile sustainable community, cycling from town to town, and opening up conversations along the way about how everyone can be an agent of change in his or her day-to-day life. With special attention on exploring local sustainability initiatives and bringing eco-education to schools, members of the West Coast Tour seek ways of using their daily lifestyle, resource use and consumption choices to be a force for good.

Sustainable Schools Committee (SSC) is hosting the Otesha group in Powell River for the fourth time. SSC is a Powell River Board of Education initiative which takes a systems-based approach to sustainability and environmental education. The committee is comprised of administrators, teachers, support staff, community members, students and parents. “We welcome the dedication and enthusiasm Otesha brings,” said Ryan Barfoot of SSC. “They really provide positive role modelling in a way that students can identify. In fact, we have had a number of Brooks [students] follow suit and pedal across Canada.”