Cross-country bike trek seeks to register voters
BURLINGTON, Vt.—Max MacDonald always wanted to bicycle across America.
Now, he's getting his chance. But he won't be alone, and the ride will be anything but easy.
MacDonald, 22, and six other young Vermont residents are embarking on a 47-day, 1,800-mile bicycle trip aimed at helping register voters and raise awareness about the importance of voting, at a time when Americans are gearing up to elect a new president.
Their initiative, dubbed The Great American Voter Trek, will make stops in Buffalo, N.Y., Cleveland, Chicago, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Omaha, Neb., and Laramie, Wyo., for voter registrations and meet with local officials in 25 other places in between.
It gets under way Monday as the seven-member bike team heads west, backed by a two-man support crew, a rented RV and a whole lot of youthful idealism.
"We're going out for a cause, but we won't know how successful it is until we get out there. What will make it a success? One more person that votes," said MacDonald.
A political science graduate of St. Michael's College, MacDonald conceived of the trip and used family connections -- his father is a state senator, his mother an executive at Cabot Creamery -- to get sponsorships for it from a dozen Vermont companies and the state, including Cabot Creamery and Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream.
Estimated cost of the trip: About $50,000.
The group, which has spent two months lining up its itinerary and contacts, plans to make the trip in daily increments of 40 to 75 miles. The bicyclists will travel together, with the RV -- carrying two bicycle mechanics -- leapfrogging them along the same route.
The RV, which sleeps eight, has a flat-screen TV, microwave oven, power generator and full bathroom and gets about 9 miles to the gallon, will be their mobile headquarters. It will make the return trip to Vermont, the riders won't. They'll fly home.
If they get hurt while riding west, they'll go first to fellow rider Hayden Coon, 24, a trained EMT.
At the six major stops, there will be music, voter registration and giveaways of Vermont products and Vermont vacation prize drawings. In Buffalo, for example, they plan to hold forth at a Gus Macker 3-on-3 basketball tournament, an outdoor hoops tournament that draws thousands of people.
At the other locations, the riders will meet with mayors and town clerks in hopes of reaching out to non-registered citizens at "mini events" in diners and elsewhere.
"Local officials will be there with us," said MacDonald. "They're the ones who'll sign people up. We'll come in and we'll be like `Hey, we're here, come talk with us and oh, by the way, you can register to vote.' We're appealing to the young people, but we're hoping anyone and everyone who isn't registered will come."
The choice of destination was partly pragmatic, partly symbolic. The riders didn't want to spend the entire summer on the trek, and they chose Wyoming as an end point because "the Equality State" was the first in the nation to let women vote, serve on juries and hold public office.
Chrissy Faessen, a spokeswoman for Rock the Vote, a non-partisan Washington, D.C., group whose mission is to engage young people in the political process, said Voter Trek is one of several similar grassroots initiatives that share that goal.
"Any effort that a group or organization does this year to spread the word and encourage young people to get out and vote is wonderful.
"There's been a huge movement brewing since 2004 of young people getting engaged and involved in the political process. I think it's wonderful there's all these groups mobilizing," Faessen said.
Like MacDonald, rider Megan Newhouse, a 22-year-old triathlete from South Burlington, had also talked about the possibility of a cross-country bicycle trip before getting involved in Voter Trek.
"When I first told my Mom, I said `Mom, I'm going to go cross-country on my bicycle' and she said `Not this again.' She was extremely happy to hear it was supported and that I was doing it for a cause and wouldn't be in one of thousands of horrible scenarios she could imagine," Newhouse said.
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On the Web:
Great American Voter Trek: http://www.votertrek.com
