 | | | Anne Merrer and John Fortunato ride along Connecticut's country roads (Photos by Kerry Weber) | |
What you can do
Not much of a cyclist? No problem — there’s more than one way to PEDAL:
PARTICIPATE: Connect with local groups that work with the poor, volunteer with Catholic Campaign for Human Development
EDUCATE: Visit povertyusa.org, read up on the problems in your area, share what you’ve learned
DONATE: Contribute to an organization, sponsor the education of a child in need, donate goods, materials, or time
ADVOCATE: Write a letter to your representative, speak directly with the poor, write an article or submit a letter to the editor of your local newspaper
LOVE: Do it all with love |
From the comfort of Charlie Chatterton’s red Saturn, the winding roads and rolling hills of central Connecticut are relatively easy to navigate. But on this warm summer day, Chatterton’s not looking to relax.
“They’re still on the road,” he says, hanging up his cell phone. “I might get to ride today!” His work schedule prevented him from joining the cycling team earlier, but he brightens at the prospect of putting in a few late-afternoon miles.
Men and women riding bikes and wearing matching green, orange, and white shirts dot the hills. On any given day, they are engineers, teachers, insurance agents, physical therapists. Today, however, they are teammates. Together, they make up an advocacy group called Brake the Cycle of Poverty, which uses cycling to raise awareness of poverty and injustice through a series of presentations at parishes throughout Connecticut.
About a dozen cyclists from the team are winding their way through the last of the 45 miles they will travel on this day. Most, like Chatterton, 43, are parishioners at St. Bridget parish in Manchester, Connecticut. He pulls his car next to the support team vehicles already on the side of the road and hops out. Th rowing a silver helmet over his curly, sand-colored hair, he grabs his bike off one of the waiting cars.
Sue Ryan, 62, a member of the support team, jumps into action, quickly getting into Chatterton’s car and pulling out to free the shoulder for the cyclists. “You have to be flexible and you have to have your wits about you, because you have people depending on you,” Ryan tells me. She and several others have spent the week making lunch runs, laundering piles of sweaty clothes, and playing a kind of leapfrog with their vehicles as they provide the riders — a group that includes her husband John — with water, snacks, and safety.
The team heads toward My Father’s House, a former vacation camp and now a retreat house and affordable-housing development. White, rustic cabins circle a grassy lawn where team members set about stretching, securing bikes, unpacking cars, and snacking on pickles. They take turns showering and emerge wearing matching gray T-shirts with “Brake the Cycle. Think about it, talk about it, take action” written in forest-green lettering. Fresh and clean, the cyclists pile into the cars on the way to St. Bridget of Kildare parish in Moodus, where they will give the evening’s presentation.
