2019 Rider Profile: Noah Droege

Meet Noah Droege, fifteenth in the 2019 series of rider profiles. Get to know the riders for the PA to DC rides as the series unfolds, then follow the trips! Learn more. Donate.

I’m not usually one to put myself out there. Other people my age go to parties, hang out with friends all the time, and generally be really social. I prefer to stay in my basement and play video games, or lie in bed and browse Reddit. So if you’re wondering what made a privileged, lazy, internet-addicted gen-Xer actually put in effort for once in his life by biking 200+ miles to Washington, D.C., and what’s making him do it every year? That’s understandable. Here’s the thing. I’m genuinely concerned for my future.

2019 Rider Profile: Casey Cook

Meet Casey Cook, fourteenth in the 2019 series of rider profiles. Get to know the riders for the PA to DC rides as the series unfolds, then follow the trips! Learn more. Donate.

As a member of the Brethren church I have a very strong connection to the environment. My father is an environmental scientist and I grew up camping, hiking, climbing, and doing a whole manor of outdoor activities with my whole family. I just finished my Junior year at Penn State and I am majoring in Middle School Social Studies Education. I think that it is incredibly important to teach about environmental issues even in social studies classes. As a teacher I hope to teach my students about the world and instill the same connection to the environment in them that I have.

2019 Rider Profile: Jess Ballenger

Meet Jess Ballenger, lucky thirteenth in the 2019 series of rider profiles. Get to know the riders for the PA to DC rides as the series unfolds, then follow the trips! Learn more. Donate.

I have a full-time-plus job, a family, and many other worthy interests and pursuits. A life. When I look at my calendar, a five-day bike trip to DC right now seems crazy.

We face rising sea levels, devastating droughts, increasingly chaotic and destructive weather, fires, famines, unprecedented threats to every aspect of life and human flourishing.

2019 Rider Profile: Bill Cozzens

Meet Bill Cozzens, twelfth in the 2019 series of rider profiles. Get to know the riders for the PA to DC rides as the series unfolds, then follow the trips! Learn more. Donate.

In the year 2100 my two granddaughters will be 86 and 83. Their children (my great grandchildren!) would be middle aged. The forecasts for what life will be like for them in 2100 are dire. Even if we immediately stop the release of greenhouse gases there will be more severe and frequent storms, droughts and serious ocean acidification. If we don’t stop burning fossil fuels and releasing other greenhouse gases, the situation will be even worse. Global average temperature could increase as much as 4 to 6 degrees C (7 to 11 degrees F). Portions of the earth now home to hundreds of millions of people will be uninhabitable. This impending cataclysm is why, since retiring 5 years ago, I have focused my attention on what we can do about climate change.

2019 Rider Profile: Marali Kalra

Meet Marali Kalra, twelfth in the 2019 series of rider profiles. Get to know the riders for the PA to DC rides as the series unfolds, then follow the trips! Learn more. Donate.

April training ride.

I’m originally from Allentown, where I attended Lehigh Valley Friends Meeting. At the moment I’m in State College studying natural resource engineering at Penn State. I like hiking, doing karate, and playing the violin, though not usually all at once. In my spare time (plus some time I can’t spare) I read. This will be my second time biking to DC with PA IPL.

I tend to shove climate change into the same mental category as wrinkles and insurance payments — it’s coming, and it’s going to be unpleasant, but I don’t have to deal with it for a few years yet. However, the more I learn in my classes, the more I see that many of the environmental systems I take for granted have already been altered or damaged by humans.

2019 Rider Profile: Dorothy Blair

Meet Dorothy Blair, eleventh in the 2019 series of rider profiles. Get to know the riders for the PA to DC rides as the series unfolds, then follow the trips! Learn more. Donate.

I am a 72 year old 6^th time biker for PA-IPL, an avid gardener, biker, Unitarian Universalist, and environmental activist. I have a 29 year old son working in cyber security in Washington D.C. who is every bit as avid as me about biking and fighting climate change.

I am hooked on our yearly PA IPL ride to D.C. to lobby our congress folk to enact legislation on climate change. I continue to ride because protecting our environment is an outgrowth of my spirituality and also my grand passion; protecting our environment while biking is a double hitter.