Leader Profile: Carrie Harvilla
How did you discover your current career path?
I wanted to combine my interests in public spaces, participation, and bike facilities, so I got a Masters in Community Development at UC Davis. Safe Routes to School involved working with a wide variety of people: students, teachers, engineers, bike mechanics, and others. Everyone is doing it because they care, they’re all volunteers. It’s uplifting to see people take action because they care about something.
Student Leader Profile: Jasmine Jolly
Last summer on my family bike tour, we took the train to Seattle where we met a couple doing a similar tour. They were very friendly and exchanged phone numbers with my dad. Coincidentally, we ran into them a few other times on our tour. We even ended up staying in the same hostel on Orcas Island and had dinner together. The people you can meet on trips like this one are incredible.
Partner Update: Bay Area BikeMobile
Since launching in mid-March, the Bay Area BikeMobile has already hosted 60 free bicycle repair workshops around the San Francisco Bay Area and helped over 1,400 participants get their broken bikes working again. Funded by Spare the Air Youth, they have also given away dozens of donated helmets, working bikes, and patch kits. Plus, with the help of a local artist, the Bay Area BikeMobile van is now covered with fun and inspiring artwork.
Program Update: Youth for the Environment and Sustainability (YES) Conference
The first Youth for the Environment and Sustainability (YES) Conference was a great success. On November 2, 2013 middle and high school students came together to discuss how the use of sustainable transportation can mitigate the effects of climate change. The YES Conference was designed to encourage youth advocacy, communication and leadership skills. Participants had opportunities to share their success stories, participate in a bicycle workshop and leadership training sessions, and learn from speakers how to best make the case for sustainable transportation.
Success Story: SF Bike & Roll to School Week
An interview with Nancy Buffum of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
Tell us a little about San Francisco Bike and Roll to School Week.
Bike and Roll to School Week is a way that a school community can support ANYONE, a beginner, a veteran biker, or a family to try biking to school. The week-long event, which started in 2009 as Bike to School Day, has rapidly grown with 40 schools in 2012, to 53 in 2013, jumping to 67 this year.