What do you do with all the memories you own?
You tell a couple stories from the road!
Over the last eight years, dozens of cyclists have ridden thousands of miles to connect communities, lead by example, speak up, and keep the work of Pennsylvania Interfaith Power & Light on the road — all through our annual bike trip from Pennsylvania to Washington DC.
This year the pandemic has provided us with an invitation to experience the journey in a whole new way. Join us on our website and social media throughout August as we visit with past cyclists and supporters, engage in interfaith prayer and climate action, and raise funds for PA IPL. Help us meet our $30,000 goal.
Tune in for weekly Stories from the Road posts on our home page blog, on Facebook, and via email (sign up here). In them you’ll find:
- Brief video conversations with bike trip participants and supporters, such as IPL Founder, the Rev. Canon Sally Bingham.
- Prayers from our 2019 Pave the Way with Prayer booklet, a collection of supporters’ prayers for the earth, which we delivered to elected officials as part of our conversations on Capitol Hill.
- Ways to participate and engage others in actions that protect and care for our Common Home and all who live here.
A few words from the road
About the Ride
The annual bike trip from Pennsylvania to Washington DC has been a microcosm of PA IPL’s mission – expanding state-wide action and awareness about climate change, lifting climate justice as a moral and interfaith issue, and advocating for policies that protect our earth and its atmosphere: the interdependent systems on which our communities depend.
The trip has also served as PA IPL’s largest fundraiser, generating nearly 20% of our budget.
The first trip launched in 2012 from State College PA, winding through small towns in central Pennsylvania, through Maryland and on to Washington, DC. Cyclists slept in congregational basements, and with homestay hosts. They shared hopes, and concerns, stories and determination with other people of faith. In those early years, they timed their trip to arrive at the annual conference of national Interfaith Power & Light, where they were welcomed by national staff and affiliate leaders from across the country.
Each year, cyclists have paused overnight to shower and rest, then spiffed themselves up to head to Capitol Hill for meetings with nearly all the Pennsylvania legislative offices. In each office, they shared their commitments, PA IPL’s work, and our concerns for climate justice with elected officials and staff, urging them to join us in this important work by pursuing energy and climate policies that protect health and welfare, rightly treating policy as a covenant with the future.
In 2018 and 2019, leaders added a new Philadelphia-originating leg to the ride, meeting up with the riders who started in State College, and heading on to Washington together.
Over the years, riders, organizers, and supporters of all sorts have raised over $86,000 for PA IPL. Those individual contributions, sponsorships, and organizational donations were enormously important to keeping us doing the work that we do: weaving community, and stepping forward in hope to act, speak, and pray for climate justice.
We invite you to donate to keep this leg of the journey in motion, and to join us in prayer, action, remembrance and celebration all through the month.
DONATE