You’re driving up a hill, on a cold June morning. Your car heater keeps you nice and warm, while windscreen wipers clean the heavy rain. At the crest of the hill, you see a small group of teenagers, clearly bikers, stopped on the side of the road. “They must be wet and tired,” you think. “Thank goodness that’s not me.”
As you get closer, you notice that one of the bikers is dancing, while the others sing show tunes and laugh hysterically. By the time you’re halfway down the other side of the hill, you wish you could leave your car, hop on your bike and join that group of crazy youth.
So reads the blog documenting GrassRoutes’ cycle trek across Canada.
On May 30 six students set off by bicycle to cross from Victoria to Nova Scotia, empowering youth along the way to become environmental leaders. One of the students is 20-year-old Graham May, graduate of Brooks Secondary School and now student at Mount Allison University, New Brunswick studying environmental science and international relations.
Over the past month, GrassRoutes members have pedalled over 1,750 kilometres and at the time of writing are just entering Manitoba. Some nights they stay in prearranged accommodation provided through relatives or friends and other nights they receive hospitality from complete strangers.
“People who we have never met before, or only had a short Internet conversation with, are extraordinarily welcoming of us into their worlds,” said May. He thinks it may be because people realize how honest and genuine the work of GrassRoutes is. “It is wonderful to meet Canadians on such a basic physical way and say this is what we are doing, can we do this with you?”
They have already spoken to about 600 youth in various schools and are raising money to develop a Youth Action Fund. As GrassRoutes inspires youth to pick up the environmental protection cause, the funds will be accessible as grants for preservation projects.
So far, the group has raised around $3,000 with a goal of $25,000, but the fundraising is not the most important part of GrassRoutes’ journey. “It is one tool for what we are doing, alongside the workshops and biking across the country.”
May briefly left the group as they arrived in Canmore, Alberta and flew to Rio de Janeiro to participate as one of a delegation of Students On Ice at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. Days of seminars and meetings, wearing a suit, eating food from goodness knows where and being trapped within air-conditioned rooms was a far cry from life on two wheels, he said.
“The outcome document of Rio was less than everyone was hoping for but not necessarily less than we were expecting,” he said. His delegation went to the conference with a goal of having the plight of the polar regions acknowledged in discussions and ensuing documentation about sustainable development. However, the group had something to learn. “We were not as successful as we hoped to be in affecting that document, the reason for that being most discussion takes place about four months before the conference and delegates come up and sign the document at the conference.”
May pulls optimism from the experience. “Decisions were already made and so it is a lesson we had to learn and we will start lobbying months ahead next time.”
On the bicycle, May is living his ideals. Together with his five teammates they make hardly any impact upon the earth, eat local produce and speak to local communities. This is deep ecology. Rio, on the other hand, was an experience of shallow ecology, according to May, who is studying the dichotomy between the two at university. With more than 45,000 people in attendance, networking and connections, together with publicity and starting conversations, were the major benefits of Rio. The conference allowed communicating of environmental ideals, whereas pedalling day after day is tangibly living his ideals, thus making the deep and shallow ecology difference.
May and his team have at least 7,000 kilometres still to ride in their remaining two months before summer is over and university starts another term. Their blog speaks of surprises such as hills in Saskatchewan or farmers concerned about a small camping stove setting fire to crops and property. And then there are the injuries.
The group is now a team of four, having lost one member to a prearranged stop in Calgary and another to the resurgence of a previous knee injury.
Even though the group is shrinking, the hilarities and antics, dances and show tune singing will persevere.
For an armchair ride from coast to coast across Canada, interested readers can catch up with GrassRoutes online. This is also the website to find out more about the Youth Action Fund and how donations can be received.
