Horrible Weather No Match for the Great Cause of Climate Cycle’s First Annual Bike-a- thon!

Saturday, May 9, saw the debut of Climate Cycle’s first annual Bike-a-Thon, which proved to be a fun, albeit freezing morning.  The ride, which had three different courses, helped raise money towards Climate Cycle’s goal of installing solar energy systems on Chicago Public Schools.

Despite weather in the 40s and strong winds off the lake, the day was a success for all involved.  Climate Cycle was able to raise over $60,000 from its participants plus an additional $30,000 match from the Motorola Foundation.

I first heard about Climate Cycle and its great cause through GiveForward’s Green Trivia night a few weeks ago.  Climate Cycle received the proceeds from our event and one volunteer, myself for its upcoming Bike-a-Thon.

I arrived at the event at 7:00 a.m. (yikes!) and proceeded over to the registration tent that would be my home for the next five hours.  I was immediately greeted by my fellow volunteers: One Brick members, local students from Curie High School, and members of the Center for Spiritual Living.  Helpful staff from Special Events Management helped us all learn our roles. While there were certainly complaints about the freezing weather and continual bracing down due to high winds, we all worked really hard and were rewarded by the wonderfully cheery riders both pre and post race.  One rider even thanked me for volunteering my time.

Another GiveForward member, Co-Founder Ethan Austin took part in the race and had a great time: “The ride was a total win-win situation for everyone involved. We had a ton of fun and all the money is going to help Chicago school kids.  You can’t beat that.  Plus, the free Chipotle burritos were a nice touch.  I doubled up and had two of them.”