Spin City: Cyclists for Cultural Exchange spreads message of global peace through biking programs
By Karen Kefauver - Sentinel correspondent
Posted:05/15/2009 01:30:03 AM PDT

Ask Emilie Holder about touring on a bicycle and she's quick to tout the benefits of two-wheeled travel.

"Visiting a place on a bike makes a huge difference wherever you go," she said. "For starters, bicyclists are less threatening than cars. It is a slower mode of transportation. Also, to see someone on a bicycle, especially carrying all their gear, makes people want to reach out and help you no matter where you are from."

Holder, a 25-year Santa Cruz County resident who is in her 50s, speaks from experience. She pedaled through Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic for nearly a month in 1995. Last summer, she toured Turkey for three weeks with her 17-year-old nephew from Oregon.

On her international bicycling tours, Holder was part of a program called Cyclists for Cultural Exchange [CCE], founded by Santa Cruz resident Frank Pritchard. Launched as a non-profit in 2004 with roots dating back to 1989, CCE promotes, according to its Web site, "peace and international understanding through exchanges between people with a common interest in cycling."

In Holder's experience, it has been successful.

"We found that when we cycled through villages in Turkey, people were very serious at first. But after we said, Hello,' formally in Turkish, then people smiled, waved and opened up communication," said Holder, a respiratory therapist and longtime member of the Santa Cruz County Cycling Club. "It was thrilling to see this happen between two cultures on opposite ends of the world."

On Sunday, CCE celebrates its mission of cycling diplomacy with the 20th annual Strawberry Fields Forever, a recreational bike tour with 30-, 65- and 100-mile routes that roll through Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. The annual recreational ride raises funds for CCE programs. That includes exchange trips like the ones Holder participated in, as well as projects like local bike builder Craig Calfee's bamboo bikes program in Africa and Bike Smart, which educates county children about bike safety.

"I feel like an expectant mother," joked ride organizer Pritchard about Sunday's event, which has filled to capacity with 1,200 riders.

Pritchard is also coordinating a delegation of 14 riders from Russia, Poland and Turkey who are coming to Santa Cruz to celebrate two decades of CCE. They will ride the Strawberry Fields Forever event, then join other local residents on a 10-day bike tour in Napa that Pritchard has organized for them.

"I think for me, CCE is an opportunity to represent America and the American spirit at a level that the world does not see so often," said Pritchard, who met his wife and CCE partner, Vita Pritchard, in a Moscow cycling exchange program in 1991.

Holder, one of 150 volunteers for CCE, indicated the organization has thrived off the goodwill of its founders.

"Frank and Vita are amazing humanitarians. They are both unconditionally committed to world peace," said Holder, a board member and 20-year volunteer at CCE who moved to Northern California two weeks ago.

Holder said she has tried to be an ambassador for the program, spreading goodwill wherever she goes, much like the Pritchards. In return, new doors have opened for her abroad and at home.

"This is far more than a bike ride," she said. "It made me realize that there were possibilities for things that I felt were impossible."

Karen Kefauver is a freelance journalist specializing in endurance sports and adventure travel stories. Her cycling column, Spin City, appears monthly in the Sentinel.

Back to the top