Building Both Houses and Character

The distance between Providence, Rhode Island and Half Moon Bay, California is 3,122 miles.

According to Mapquest.com, that trip by car, nonstop, is 47 hours and 35 minutes. If we factor in six hours of travel time per day, nine hours of sleep per night, plus a few hours out of each day for meals, a shower, and perhaps some sightseeing the trip would take about eight days.

Now imagine the same trip... made on a bicycle.

As crazy as that sounds, it’s almost precisely what 24 year-old Malverne resident Rachel Freeman plans to do this summer. Rachel will be cycling across the continental United States in a pack of 34 volunteers with Bike & Build, a non-profit organization which raises money and awareness for affordable housing causes across the country.

Here’s how it works: each volunteer is to raise $4,000 in donations prior to the trip. Most of that money goes to the affordable housing causes, such as Habitat for Humanity and Rebuilding Together. A portion of that money may go to an organization, such as a church, which gives the group a place to spend the night.

Throughout the trip the group will stop at several construction sites and participate in the building or renovation of a house overseen by one of the affordable housing programs.

Rachel has raised $1,100 thus far.

“Right now, I’ve been really targeting family and friends,” said Rachel. “I made a letter campaign to my friends and family and they can donate either online or via check.”

In addition to the $4,000 in donations, prior to the cross-country trip each volunteer needs to clock in 500 miles of cycling and 10 hours on a construction site.

Rachel’s group of 18-25 year-olds is scheduled to depart Providence on June 9 and arrive in Half Moon Bay on August 20. That’s 73 days of biking and building, minus a few days off. Philadelphia-based Bike & Build, Inc. has eight such trips with varying routes planned for 2011.

At the moment Rachel is a beginner cyclist who will be in a group that contains beginners to experts, all of whom will pedal up to 75 miles per day.

How does a newbie cyclist prepare for such a trek?

“I have joined a gym!” said Rachel.

As a safety measure, one of the four leaders of the group will follow in a van and should a cyclist run into trouble, he or she will continue on in the car until the problem is solved.

According to the Bike & Build Web site, shower locations are described as follows: “Sometimes it is a YMCA or gym, other times it may be a garden hose.” (No wonder no one over 25 does this.)

After the trip is completed, Rachel will return from California by plane with her bike in tow.

Rachel is a 2004 graduate of Malverne High School and received her Bachelors in English (with a minor in art) from SUNY Albany in 2008 and is currently enrolled in an education program at Queens College. She’s a student-teacher at South Side High School in Rockville Centre and works part time at . (Part of her fundraising strategy is having a donation container on the counter at Malverne Bagels where benefactors can purchase a World’s Famous Chocolate bar for a dollar, which goes toward Rachel’s $4,000 requirement.)

Rachel’s parents, Al and Betty Freeman, are all for their daughter’s upcoming excursion. Rachel’s sense of adventure comes from her father. In 1972, shortly after his graduation from college, Al and two friends took on Europe.

“We bought a van in Amsterdam, painted ‘Vincent Gogh Van’ on the front, traveled through Europe, drove it through until the van died on us, and we left it there and came home," he said.

While Rachel has the next few months planned out in detail, what comes afterward is still unknown. She’s contemplating continuing with college to earn a Masters in creative writing. This would be concurrent with working, either as an English teacher or possibly at a not-for-profit organization.

Those decisions are still a long way off though. Right now her focus is on continuing to raise money and train for her trip. So if you see her whiz by you on her bicycle, you’ll know this girl is going places.

Those wishing to donate to Rachel's cause and follow her journey can do so by visiting rachelbandb.weebly.com.