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Spotlight on Fernando Sanchez

Fernando, affectionately known as Fern, has been a member of the Triangle Bikeworks family since his sophomore year in high school. He discovered TBW as a freshman through a presentation in his English class.

He was drawn by the genuine appeal for youth to get involved in adventure cycling. And the idea of biking and camping sounded awesome to him!

His first tour was the 2013 Bikes, Blues & Soul, cycling along the Mississippi River Trail from New Orleans, LA to St. Louis, MO. It was the last of Triangle Bikeworks’ epic 30-day tours. Fern draws strength from his experience of cycling 30 days without voluntarily getting into the van. He remembers pushing himself to succeed and bike every mile the whole time. It was incredible for him to feel that he could do something like that.

“It is very eye-opening to be able to go to different parts of the country especially if you don’t have the opportunity to do it (on your own). It’s amazing to see different places that you’re not used to, and experience different cultures around the country. There’s so much diversity ”

Fern finds it important to “Do something that you know that it’s only you pushing yourself to finish, instead of having to rely on anybody else. We ride as a team but when you’re cycling, that’s your own mental and physical abilities going at work.”

Fern loves riding his bike.

His biggest challenge on that first tour was the proximity to everyone. He knew it was something he needed to work through. Something he needed to get used to. His remedy was being outdoors, cycling, camping, and enjoying nature.

“It taught me a lot about leadership and becoming the person that I am. Not being afraid to venture out into something new… in the end, it’s only you that’s going to push yourself forward.”

Since he’s graduated, Fern has never left our side. He’s been our trusted SAG driver for over four years taking time off from school and work to give back in the best way he knows how. Making sure youth like him have the best experience possible.

“Its amazing to see how close everyone gets by the end of the tour. And it’s the same for every trip. It’s so great to see that. I still see it. I still see everyone grow together.”

“The experience itself is once in a lifetime and an experience that you want to have.”

The events of Wednesday, Oct 21, blew my mind. I woke extra early to meet a young man as he embarked on a personal journey of running the 77 miles of Segment 10 of the Mountains to Sea Trail. Nathan Toben was attempting to run that distance as the Fastest Known Time for that segment. I wasn’t aware this competition existed. Maybe you didn’t, either. As a matter of fact, I didn’t know Nathan before he contacted me at the beginning of summer.

Nathan reached out to me because he wanted to use a passion of Ultra Running to benefit Triangle Bikeworks. Nathan runs ultra distances. An ultra distance is typically any distance beyond 26.2 miles. Just before sunrise Me, Itza, the youth and volunteers of Triangle Bikeworks, watched Nathan as he ran off into the darkness.

Early reports of him reaching milestones were encouraging. At the 48 mile mark he was close to 30 minutes ahead of schedule. But as the afternoon wore on, and the heat of the day was beginning to reach it’s peak of 82, he began to suffer. The last few weeks of training weather had been cool. It became clear that this was not going to be an easy task even with all the preparations that were made. Additional reports of him losing electrolytes only increased my nail biting.

Nathan was putting his body on the line for the youth of Triangle Bikeworks. Sure, this was something he wanted, and was, going to do anyway. But I can’t help but think that during his run we were on his mind, driving him and adding to his purpose. There were many supporters he brought to this personal effort to reach his goal of raising $5,000 for the youth of Triangle Bikeworks. He surpassed that goal. I’m sure that fact also raised his spirits and kept him going. I can only imagine what was going through his mind as he pushed passed his pain to continue on. And once he’s rested I plan to ask him.

I don’t know what was going through Nathan’s mind as he ran. I see his pushing through to make every step count for every dollar donated the same as your daily grind to make a hard earned dollar. In turn, you make the choice to donate to Triangle Bikeworks. I am just as in awe of you as I am of Nathan.

For Nathan, every minute mattered, every second counted. Your time, as precious as it is, can sometimes be quantified in dollar amounts. We are humbled that you share your precious time to invest in the youth of Triangle Bikeworks.

Nathan finish the 77 mile run in a (unofficial) record time of 12hrs 23mins 24secs.

Innovating and Moving Forward

COVID-19 is a heavy thought. When I think deeply on it the sheer number of people affected, infected, and have died from the virus can be overwhelming. Me and Michelle continue to take

precautions to maintain our safety. I hope you are, as well. With this going

on so long it’s easy to get lulled into a false sense of security and let your

guard down. DON’T.

If you find you’re going a little stir crazy cause you can’t get out as often as you’d like

remember there are youth who also have this problem. We should be able to use our

wisdom, experience, and creativity to encourage them to get outdoors and be active!

Don’t forget you should be active, Too!

We continue to try and innovate for the youth. Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Hangouts have started to burn the youth out.

But it’s one way we can get in front of them and have a conversation with teammates that’s not around too much structured education (But… just like good parents, we’ll slip in the education with the vegetables and they’ll learn something new before they know it)

I took a ride with David a few weeks ago and, as always, we had a great conversation.

We talked about his week of school, his new puppy (I don’t think he knows how big a Great Pyrenees gets). We also talked about how COVID is affecting him and his school work. It’s 360 degrees of challenges.

He spoke about how he’s affected. You can watch the video here.

Other youth have expressed similar affects of COVID. I mean, school was the great big event in a young person’s life. Now it’s reduced to a few hours online. In the same room. Of the same house. Around the same people. Every day.

At Triangle Bikeworks we’re committing ourselves to getting youth outdoors to break the monotony of their current daily lives. Even if it’s just an hour over the weekend. Thanks for being there to help us do our part.

We had a successful “Virtual Bike Tour” of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. Over 50 community members joined us each of the four days of the “tour”. Can you believe that?! We learned Untold History of the Gullah Geechee people from notable historians. Every day brought us something new and exciting to learn. If you weren’t able to attend due to scheduling or just want to revisit what you learned we’re uploading the videos on our website for community enrichment.

The specific link is https://spokenrevolutions.org/guge-tod

Innovating and Moving Forward

The youth continue to successfully ride one on one with myself and Itza.

Please welcome our newest member to the family, Monica!

William is eager to test out the trails at Triangle Land Conservancy’s Bailey and Sarah Williamson Preserve.

Vote to Support a Local Nonprofit (Triangle Bikeworks):

Here’s your opportunity to give us $10,000 of someone else’s money! Spread the news, campaign to have people vote for us, and vote yourself. In this election you can vote as many times as you’d like. And I’m hoping you like us enough to vote at least 10 times. You could also put just a little in the kitty for the fund to grow… just a little.

Ten local nonprofit organizations will be chosen to receive advertising credit through the Campaign for Local Community Nonprofit Advertising Fund. Vote on any nonprofit organization as many times as you would like until midnight on September 25th (you may need to refresh your page or close the window and open it again). We know almost ALL of the nonprofits, just make sure you include us in the list of choices (just sayin’).

Triangle Bikeworks’ annual Ice Cream Social and family bike ride. If all goes right, this year the route is in shape of an ice cream cone!

Innovating

Even though we can’t gather as a team we are continuing our pre-tour learning through a book study. Ensuring we continue enriching the lives of young people. We’re really loving how our book study is going, so much so, that we have added book studies as part of how we engage in learning about untold history. We’ve already begun thinking of the next book: Angelou Ezeilo’s book, Engage, Connect, Protect: Empowering Diverse Youth as Environmental Leaders.

Every Sunday, for the last four weeks, we’ve been getting together for a book study. The book we’re studying/reading now is Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You. Released in March 2020, it’s a collaboration of award winning author Jason Reynolds and Dr. Ibram X. Kendi. Reynold’s book is an adaptation of Kendi’s book Stamped from the Beginning. The book is for teens and young adults and serves to start a conversation among them about race and racism in America. Reynolds says,

“I think that we have a rare opportunity to give the historical context of how we made it here today. This is the definitive history of race in America from the 1400s to today. It isn’t about how to fix it per se. It’s just about contextualizing why it is the way it is.”

Do you have any books you’d recommend? Email your suggestions to ride

A Commitment To Do No Harm

Restorative practices has helped us intentionally build strong relationships and build community with our youth ensuring that we have the space to have open conversations where we can all learn from each other and grow.

Itza and Educational Designer, Michelle, are both trained in Restorative Practices which helps us ensure the children’s needs are met and we stay open to conversation.

Getting Back On The Road

After over two months of “hanging out” indoors the youth let us know they can’t wait to get back on the road. We can’t wait either so we’re quickly updating and adding new protocols to make that happen and ensure we minimize risks. I spoke to one parent and we discussed any concerns she had. After the conversation we developed a prototype practice ride and implemented a new protocol that allowed for one to one riding. Next we’ll meet with all parents to present our changes and hear them address any additional concerns. Ultimately, helping us create a comprehensive set of policies that will allow us to continue moving forward with training.