The joy is in the journey
Two Wheaton seniors plan cross-country trek to benefit the environment
By Katie Franklin '09
Imagine riding your bicycle all the way across the country, from coast to coast. You'd be peddling 60 or more miles per day for two to three months and carrying everything you need on your back--without even knowing where you would be sleeping from night to night.
Sound challenging? After graduation this May, Wheaton seniors John Garrett-Young and Noah Saul Bernstein are taking on just such a challenge in an effort to raise money for environmental preservation. The two men plan to fly to San Francisco, then cycle north along the west coast, work their way across the middle of country and end up in Maine.
The students have been soliciting donations from family, friends and the Wheaton community in hopes of raising at least $10,000. They plan to donate $7,000 to the Crystal Spring Earth Learning Center in Plainville, Mass. The remaining funds will go toward the cyclists' travel expenses.
Crystal Spring maintains a 42-acre environmental center and offers programs and events related to nature education, organic gardening, "ecological spirituality," cooking, music and the arts. The money raised by the cyclists will go toward the construction of a new arboretum and other programs at the center, Bernstein said.
But why a cross-country bike ride? Both students enjoy cycling, though Bernstein's experience skews toward road biking while Garrett-Young prefers mountain biking. Both know other people who have completed such ambitious trips and have found them to be rewarding.
"We're trying to create a much more intimate relationship with nature and become more comfortable with our surroundings," said Garrett-Young. "That, plus not knowing what we want to do with our lives, makes for a real capstone to our Wheaton career." They plan to sleep in tents in campgrounds and pastures, and might even knock on people's doors to ask permission to sleep in their fields.
Raising money for the environment struck them as a way to put their personal values into practice. "Helping the environment isn't something that our family and friends think of on a daily basis," said Bernstein. "Just by doing little things to make a difference in our everyday world serves a wider purpose."
Their idea crystallized when the two students took the course "Religion and Ecology" with Barbara Darling-Smith, assistant professor of religion, last semester. When the students hatched the idea of taking the trip and donating money to the organization, Darling-Smith encouraged them to pursue the plan. The men hope to return to campus at a later date to share their experiences in Darling-Smith's class.
Wheaton has had a relationship with Crystal Spring for more than a decade, Darling-Smith said. Her "Religion and Ecology" class seeks to cultivate compassion for the earth, she said, and her students have visited the center to observe a way of life that incorporates organic food growing, a respect for nature, a reverence for the earth and protection of animals. Staff members from Crystal Spring have often visited Wheaton's anthropology class, "Feast and Famine," and students from religion classes and First Year Seminar have participated in service learning projects at the center.
"Carole Rossi, one of the three Dominican sisters who run Crystal Spring, often says that Wheaton students are wonderful," Darling-Smith said. "Noah and John have just given her two more powerfully persuasive reasons to believe that! Their visionary, generous project grows out of their own commitment to make the world a better place, to raise awareness about this fragile and beautiful earth we live on and the threats to its continued flourishing."
Bernstein and Garrett-Young have begun to prepare for the trip by sending out letters asking for donations and by working out regularly at the fitness center.
"We hope to stay healthy and not rush," said Garrett-Young. "It's a trip that will be a reevaluation and a reflection of ourselves."
Although they are prepared for flat tires and pulled muscles en route, the two hope for the best.
"We do know there will be unexpected things along the way, but we're mature enough to take care of ourselves," said Bernstein. "The struggle is the best part."
For more information, or to inquire about donating to the trip, you can e-mail either student:
bernstein_noah@wheatonma.edu
garrett-young_john@wheatonma.edu.)