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This summer, Viktorija Gecyte ’08 (Vilnius, Lithuania) had an unusual travel companion – a yellow road bike she affectionately nicknamed “Sneeze.” Sneeze carried Gecyte nearly 3,800 miles from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. to benefit Global Exchange, an international human rights organization.
Gecyte’s group of 25 riders included recent graduate Stefany Feliciano ’06, who recruited Gecyte for the trip after learning about Global Exchange’s Bike-Aid program through her work with the LandisCommunityOutreachCenter.
“I expected it to be much harder than it was, mostly because we had a fantastic group of young but mature, organized, sensible people, and we all had a wonderful sense of humor,” says Gecyte, an economics and business major. “We laughed as much as we biked.”
The riders traveled through California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Along the way, they visited various human rights groups and got to know the people and landscapes of the places they passed through.
“I have grown an enormous appreciation for the United States, especially for its nature, the West, and the Midwest,” Gecyte says. “It has been a gradual process throughout the last two years, getting used to the American culture, food, and a different way of treating people or making friends. But I think that this summer has finally planted a love for this big country in me.”
The group focused on the empowerment of marginalized communities, meeting with indigenous communities, gay and lesbian organizations, and youth and anti-drug organizations. In addition to learning about different issues facing Americans throughout the country, the riders participated in service projects with various organizations.
Memorable experiences Gecyte collected during her ride included helping a local Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender community center clean up its youth activity area in Salt Lake City; camping out on Native American pow-wow grounds and watching a dance competition for young girls in Fort Duquesne, Utah; learning about Colorado for Fairness and Equality’s efforts to collect signatures in support of legal partnerships between same-sex couples in Boulder. Gecyte also learned about breeding perennial crops that grow in polyculture and only need to be planted every seven to eight years at the Land Institute in Salina, Kan; visited the Ozark Avalon Church of Nature, a pagan church and campsite, in Boonville, Mo.; attended summer camp classes at the Boys and Girls Club in St. Louis; and rode in Critical Mass in Indianapolis, where cyclists take to the streets to show motorists that bicycles are an alternative form of transportation and riders deserve respect on the road.
Near the conclusion of their trip, the group visited the Mountain Watershed Association in Pittsburgh. The problems of mining made an impact on Gecyte, who brought up what she learned when she met John Myers, Senator Arlen Specter’s legislative assistant, in the nation’s capital. The residents of Pine Mountain Resort, located just outside Pittsburgh, must contend with contaminated groundwater, unsafe mines no longer in use, and operating mines that refuse to comply with state safety requirements.
Gecyte kept an email log of her experiences as she traveled cross-country. In it, she recorded the ups and downs of bicycle travel as well as recollections of the many people and places she visited.
“I picked up my bicycle, my yellow road fellow which I had finally named Sneeze, and I spun it in my hands, then ran into the waves and dove in,” she writes of her arrival in RehobothBeach. “Despite headwinds, rain storms, heat weaves, gravel roads, angry drivers, sores and pains, exploding tubes and flat tires, thirst, sweat, constant hunger, eroded roads, steep hills, and mountains, I reached the ocean happy, healthy, and strong.”
Now studying abroad for the semester at the Sorbonne in Paris, Gecyte misses her road warrior days.
“Unfortunately, I was forced to leave Sneeze in Easton,” she writes. “I am missing it tremendously and I encounter frequent sadness and nostalgia attacks when I see cyclists on the road while I am driving around in a car.”
Each rider had to raise $3,800 to help defray the costs of transporting belongings, food, and repaying hosts. A portion of the money also went toward other Global Exchange programs. Gecyte and Feliciano received donations from Lafayette faculty, administrators, alumni, and scholarship donors. Last spring, students and administrators performed a jazz concert to help their fundraising efforts.
Global Exchange is a membership-based international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic, and environmental justice around the world. Founded in 1988, it increases public awareness of root causes of injustice while building international partnerships and mobilizing for change. Gecyte and Feliciano rode in the 21st annual Bike-Aid event.