bike profile 2019 – Page 2 – Pennsylvania Interfaith Power & Light

2019 Rider Profile: Janet Swim

Meet Janet Swim, State College trip leader, and tenth 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.

This will be my fourth year of bicycling with PA IPL to DC. This year I am the bike “leader”, though the truth is I am co-leading it with many other people both on the ride and within PA IPL leading through their experience and efforts to make the ride possible.

I go on this ride for many reasons. First, personally, the bicycle ride viscerally represents my passion for the need to make changes. Moreover, symbolically, it represents going beyond what we now define as ordinary ways to live to engaging in new ways to live that are more symbiotic with nature.

2019 Rider Profile: Eric Podietz

Meet Eric Podietz, ninth 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 grew up in the 50’s and 60’s with a love of the outdoors nurtured by my father, David, who took us camping in the Pennsylvania State Parks, planted trees whenever & wherever possible and was composting our household scraps way before it became fashionable. He instilled in his children a love for the outdoors and caring for the environment. At 101, he is doing OK. At least one reason I am doing this ride is to honor him.

While I biked a lot locally

2019 Rider Profile: Eric Kauffman

Meet Eric Kauffman, eighth 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 had the rare privilege growing up, working and living on a farm. This provided a deep sense of connection with the land, the seasons and God’s mysterious presence and creativity in them. I left that lifestyle to follow the call of working in the church full time, though I sometimes wonder if I should have stayed. Though probably romanticized, I miss the hours of quiet contemplation on a tractor seat, getting dirty and sweaty, and even rubbing shoulders with cows (though not the never-ending work in rain, cold and heat). I also miss the community that farming can create through shared struggles and experience.

2019 Rider Profile: Chris Antal

Meet Chris Antal, seventh 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 staff chaplain at the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center in Philadelphia. Prior to that, I was a congregational minister and military chaplain. In 2012 deployed with the U.S. Army to Afghanistan, leaving my congregation, my wife, and our five young children for seven months. For the past decade my ministry has brought me into contact with servicemembers and Veterans who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as with the people who live, or used to live, in those countries. I have witnessed some of the tragic

2019 Rider Profile: Rabbi Nathan Martin

Meet Rabbi Nathan Martin, sixth 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. D o nate.

I’m pleased to be able to come back, help organize, and ride again for the PA IPL Philadelphia to Washington, DC bike ride! I do see bike riding not only as a way to try to stay healthy but also as an important awareness practice around reducing one’s carbon footprint in the world.

In my mid-20’s when I was living in Berkeley, California, I was first introduced to the idea of using one’s bicycle as their “car.” My housemate, an energy efficiency engineer and bike enthusiast, would not only ride his bike to work everyday — a good climb – but then would continue after work by bike for his shopping and social life events too. When he started dating his soon-to-be wife, they

2019 Rider Profile: Jason Whitney

Meet Jason Whitney, fifth 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.

This is my third ride from State College to Washington D.C. I also rode in 2014 and 2018. This ride means the world to me. There is something about getting to our nation’s capital under one’s own power that is a sort of self-efficacy and political-efficacy starter kit, and shows what positive things can come from becoming involved in high-quality groups like Interfaith Power & Light.

This capital we ride to is not just any capital. This is the capital of the United States of America, where we riders walk the halls of Congress and