Ian Weniger 's Story

Hello there--I heard about you on CBC Radio One. I was once a road racer, and dreamt of competing in Europe. Your ride beats the Tour de France. I'd like to accompany you from Vancouver to Delta on Saturday 21 July. This ride is just my speed, both physically and politically. Out of Afghanistan, into Kyoto!

I don't have a photo to upload until I load my camera with fresh batteries, but I'd rather spend the money on antlers for my commuter bike. My road bike is in the shop, so I can't rely on its readiness. I'll try to bring my family along (wife and two boys) from Trout Lake to Moody Park.

I must congratulate you for picking the Central Valley ride, since the start and end points are accessible by Skytrain. Since bikes are permitted on the train all weekend, riders need not travel more than a couple of kilometres from Moody Park to one of two stations in downtown New Westminster to get home. This works for me very well because my family will be able to take the train back home instead of relying on a car ride to shlep the bikes home... I think of the silliness of driving our family car from Vancouver to New West at 5 am, then coming home, preparing the bikes and then riding out to New West.

Thanks for being here!

--
Ian Weniger
Vancouver, BC Canada

Marguerite Laliberte's Story

My story is a short one: my name is Marguerite - Cree/Metis culture and I have always had concerns about the welfare of "Mother Earth". I bike as much as possible, eat organic, recycle and try to live as minimal as possible. I am in good physical shape, look forward to the tour and meeting like minded people.

Thank you,
Marguerite

Nonie Jackson's Story

Hello, my name is Nonie Jackson, and I am a very enthusiastic supporter for Wheels For Change.

From a very young age, I was very passionate about nature. My earliest and happiest recollections were playing outside, in a garden, wood or field, investigating anything that had life--bugs, birds, flowers and trees. I would walk or cycle off for miles into the countryside searching for birds nests etc. and would challenge myself to climb up to the highest branch of a tree and hang upside down!!

After training as an elementary teacher in England, my (then) husband and I bought a 130 acre farm in Hereford England, and built up to 90 pedigree Guernsey cows which we milked---and I built up my flock of sheep, from a few baby pet lambs, to a flock of 200 ewes, over 15 years. I must say, that I was a dab hand at being a sheep midwife!! Our three children were fortunate to have the opportunity to grow up in such a beautiful environment, and to be shown the values and lifestyle of a family run farm. We were virtually self-sufficient, and produced most of our own food, grown organically on the farm. During my farming days i was often torn and dismayed by the impact that the chemical corporations were having, and changing many of the old traditional organic ways of farming. Chemical sprays, pesticides and herbicides, polluting the countryside and poisoning the rivers ,and drugs and hormones administered to cows, etc.

We sold our farm in 1988 and emmigrated to Vernon. B.C. where we bought an old established orchard, which we decided to run as certified organic. After five years of helping to run the orchard and building a new house, my husband and I separated. Since then I have become very involved in the local community, volunteering at my local school, the St John Ambulance Therapy Dog programme, Komasket Music Festival, Children's summer camps and now the Wheels for Change campaign.

I feel that it is imperative for us all to wake up and become accountable for our actions and effects upon global warming. We all need to think about the choices we make--to grow our own food organically or support the local farmers markets and buy locally!!!

AND TO REFUSE, REDUCE AND REUSE !!!

As my mentor David Suzuki says---

'WE SHOULD LIVE SIMPLY, SO OTHERS CAN SIMPLY LIVE'

Steve Loo's Story

Steve, who are you and what do you do? I am an activist and college student in Calgary, Alberta. Since the fall of 2004, I have been studying non-profit management at Mount Royal College. For paid work, I do night shifts with autistic children and youth in a group home (more specifically, I deal with insomnia, urine messes, seizures, and attempts at sneaking out). I am a board member of the Arusha Centre through which I have organized and promoted multiple events since 2004. In 2005, I joined the Otesha Project Prairie Tour as we rode on our bikes from Calgary to Yorkton (approximately 1200 km) to do environmental and social justice presentations and workshops in schools, community halls, churches and people's living rooms. In this past May, I was co-organizer for a bike trip from Calgary to Kananaskis (approximately 120 km) for the Trails to Sustainability Conference focusing on environmental education. In a few months, I will begin a new job with Katimavik as project leader.

How did you become involved in environmentalism and climate change? I spent much of my childhood not really understanding my role within community and environment. I had my share of experiences involving 20 minute showers, driving and idling a gas-guzzling car, etc. My first great leap into environmentalism (beyond collecting cans and bottles for recycling) happened while in Australia. As my first major traveling experience, I spent 8 and a half months hitch-hiking around the country. Loved every second of it.

At one point, I hiked through part of the desert near Alice Springs. When your life depends on all the water you're carrying on your back, you gain a whole new perspective on this liquid that most people take for granted every day. I also learned a great deal about the importance of planning and preparation. I finished my long dry hike with roughly 200 mL of water and one extremely dry throat. I quickly rethought my attitudes and behaviors towards water. This meant shorter showers, turning off the water tap when brushing my teeth, etc. With some research, I learnt that the entire region surrounding Alice Springs was drawing its water from underground lakes and streams. But this water source was quickly running dry (because of long showers, watering lawns, etc). Yet many people continued consuming water needlessly as if this wasn't a desert. I wanted to say something but that would have been hypocritical considering the water practices in Alberta (oil drilling, tar sands, long showers and watering lawns, etc). I am part of the problem and therefore must be part of the change. After returning to Calgary, during a process over 3 or 4 years, I had to rethink much of my life – not just water consumption, but also transportation, food, clothes, media, government and our education system. As a result, it gradually changed to one involving better health and environment, greater creative and organizational skills, and more critical thinking.

For example, now I am:
1. Using my bike as my main form of transportation including winter time (I still drive once a week through carsharing)
2. Using less paper (in fact, I haven't bought any new paper in 3 years);
3. Having not just shorter showers but also having staggered and fewer showers; recently we bought a dual flush toilet. Woohoo!
4. Creating my own artistic notebooks reusing old materials
5. Becoming more integrated with my local economy – not just local foods but also locally made products and services (yay Calgary Dollars)
6. Organizing and promoting documentary screenings focusing on social justice and environmental issues, and showcasing local activists working on local causes
7. Gardening (with mixed success but still trying)
8. Questioning and challenging our politicians, journalists, teachers and other “professionals” (along with fellow students) regarding government policy and media portrayal of all the issues
9. Encouraging my friends to take up more sustainable lifestyles while emphasizing that this is progression rather than perfection.

Why do I want to be a part of the Wheels of Change bike tour? I was planning to take a vacation and wanted to experiment with biking as the key means of transportation. Obviously this is cheaper and less emissions than flying or driving. I'm hoping that this experience will allow me to better absorb my surroundings and the communities that we will pass through on the way to the coast. Also, I will meet some really cool bikers along the way. Oryx the Black Stallion (my trusty bike) and I are proud to be part of this bike trip.

Ann, Sjeng and Oscar's Story

Hi, Sjeng, Oscar and I live in Nelson, BC in a small, (well insulated) house. Sjeng is originally from Holland, I’m from Vancouver and when we met each other over there, bicycling was a big part of our lives. While Canada is quite a bit more vertically challenging, we still spend some of our best times sitting on a bicycle. Oscar is now 17 years old, and we’ve been dragging him along with us for years. This past January we spent a month biking in Cuba. Three years ago, we biked in Thailand for two months. We’ve also ridden the Galloping Goose out of Victoria (very nice), plus lots of local rides and many awesome trips in Holland. I am attracted to this trip cause it’s something we’ve wanted to do for a while, but never seem to get it together by ourselves. It would also be great to meet like-minded people that we would otherwise be unlikely to meet. We like camping, biking, and eating, so this trip felt like a good match.

As far as global warming, we try to live a smaller footprint by doing the following.

• We’ve planted lots of trees in our lot and grow some of our own food.
• We run a High Efficiency washing machine and hang our clothes to dry.
• We live in a small community, so drive very few commuter kms. to work, school or shop.
• We buy local and organic as much as possible.
• We live in a small, very well insulated house with double glaze windows.
• We burn a renewable heat source in the winter (wood from fallen trees).
• We compost and recycle like crazy.
• We buy second hand goods and clothes.
• We don’t (or at least very rarely) use any chemical cleaners.
• We always (well, almost always) reuse shopping bags or baskets.
• We don’t flush every time.
• We use rechargeable batteries.
• We use an electric bike as a second vehicle.

I look forward to meeting everyone. See you soon, Ann

Femke Woud's Story

My name is Femke Woud and I moved to Victoria with my family from Toronto, 2.5 years ago. The contrast in air quality, access to nature, and natural beauty that surrounds us here, is something that I appreciate everyday, and makes me respect my friends in Toronto even more for their commitment to bike through that city everyday!

I grew up in the Netherlands and remember biking to school was the most normal thing to do....I don't even remember anybody ever being brought to school by car. In a country the size of Vancouver Island with about 14 million people, bikers and bike lanes are everywhere. However, after an accident in Toronto (where I broke my wrist in two places getting stuck in tram track) I lost confidence in biking through Toronto's busy streets and only biked 'for pleasure' on the bike paths along the lake. Here in Victoria I have regained some of my confidence, and enjoy biking with my daughter, on the back of my dutch bike, through Victoria.

Still, I have to admit that I do drive my daughter to her Waldorf preschool, but carpool with another mom. My partner takes the bus to work everyday which takes him about an hour. He enjoys it.

I feel good about only using natural cleaning products for my house (water and vinegar works wonders and some essential oils for the smell), using organic fertilizer for my new hobby gardening, community composting, using plastic crates for my shopping supplies (or cotton bags, which by the way is 'normal' in Holland...you actually pay $0.25 cents for every plastic bag you purchase and has been like this since I was little in the sixties), eating locally organic foods whenever possible, wearing an extra sweater indoors in the winter, and recycling clothes and toys. My next project is to get our house assessed for energy conservation/loss. Kari, you inspired me!

My own personal passion is in studying and using the power of 'energy medicine' (acupuncture, shiatsu, homeopathy and quantum healing) as the medicine of the 21st century, and exposing the truths about pharmaceutical companies and their questionable goals in true health. I feel honored to be part of this great initiative here in Victoria.

Femke Woud (Shiatsu Therapist)

Kari Jones' Story

My name is Kari Jones. I live with my family in Victoria. My climate change story is about renovating my house. Two years ago my husband and I started renovating the basement of our house in Fairfield. We tore everything out of the basement, leaving only the structural stuff like the beams and struts. Then we called City Green Victoria to come and do an energy audit of the house. Their representative, Wendy, came and checked the whole house—the windows, the doorways, the attic, everything. Then she put a huge fan contraption in our front doorway and measured how many air exchanges we had each hour.

A normal house that is moderately well insulated is supposed to have 3-4 air exchanges in a hour. We had 12. Yyppes…..

Wendy gave us a number of suggestions such as putting a thicker insulator in the basement walls before we rebuilt and adding a vapour barrier to wick out moisture. Over the next six months we slowly built our basement back up, replacing single paned windows with double paned ones, putting in warm and beautiful (though kinda’ expensive) cork flooring, and insulating for all we were worth. When we were done Wendy came back for a follow up visit, and phew… we are down to 6 air exchanges an hour.

Still more work to go, obviously. We have to insulate the upstairs and get better insulation in the attic. But we’re on the right track. Our house is so much warmer! And… our heating costs are half what they once were.

I’m looking forward to meeting everyone somewhere between Nelson and Victoria!

Kari Jones, Co-author of Hiking Adventures for Children