Students to Hit the Trail for Habitat
Chicago Daily Herald, March 29, 2000
Do you think you have the endurance to pedal 20 pounds of aluminum and steel across roughly 4,000 miles of hilly, winding roads for more than two months straight?
College students Eden Robins and Lauren Fleer aren't sure, but they are willing to try.
The pair of Palatine, IL natives has signed up for the bicycle trips this summer to raise money for Habitat for Humanity International Inc., a grassroots, non-profit organization that works in partnership with people from all walks of life to eradicate poverty housing by helping people build their own homes.
Robins is propping herself on a hard bicycle seat and pedaling all the way from New Haven, Conn., to San Francisco. Fleer is pedaling from New Haven to Vancouver, Canada.
"It sounded like a great thing to do for the summer," Robins said. Plus, I respect Habitat for Humanity. They address important issues in an individualistic way. They build one house at a time."
Robins said she's packing light because she'll be riding 40 to 110 miles per day. She'll bring a backpack, a raincoat and a sleeping bag.
A van will follow the bikers on the trip. Arrangements have been made to stop and sleep at places along the way.
They'll also stop to help build houses along the way.
"I love using tools," Robins said. "I worked at a national forest in Montana and did trail clearing. I used tools for that. I love them."
Habitat for Humanity uses volunteer labor and tax-deductible donations to build and rehabilitate simple, decent houses with the help of the homeowner, officials said.
Habitat houses are sold to partner families at no profit, financed with affordable, no-interest loans. The organization says it has built 70,000 houses around the world for 350,000 people.
Robins explains why she supports the program.
"I think the fact that this country claims to be equal opportunity is a crock," she said. "There's a conception that if everyone works hard enough, they can achieve anything. But that assumes everyone starts out equally educationally, economically. They don't. That's not true."
"Economic disadvantages are horrible," said Robins, who grew up an only child in Palatine and whose father, Bert, is a salesman and mother, Jane, is an industrial real estate broker. "I do what I can to remedy that."
One way, is to help Habitat for Humanity, she said.
But in order to help them, Robins and Fleer need help themselves.
Anyone interested in sponsoring Robins for a tax-deductible flat rate can call her at (860) 685-6324 or visit the Web site at www.yale.edu/habitat and click on "riders."
People can contact Fleer at the Web site or call her at (507) 933-8997.
Copyright© 2000 LEXIS-NEXIS, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights Reserved.
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