Atwood plans cycle trip for affordable housing

FALLS VILLAGE — This summer the Atwood family will again be represented on the nation’s highways, as Catherine Atwood leads a team of about 30 bicylists on a 3,766-mile journey from Portland, Maine, to Santa Barbara, Calif., in support of affordable housing.Bike & Build, based in Philadelphia, Pa., sponsors bicycle trips to rasie money for (and awareness of) affordable housing. The cyclists stop along the route once a week and help with building projects. Atwood is in the process of raising $4,000 in donations. The money is distributed through Bike & Build’s grant program.This is the second year for Atwood. Her brother, Joe, participated last year as well.Catherine Atwood is a 2010 graduate of Virginia Tech, with a degree in architecture.Riding a bicycle across the United States might seem daunting, but this is a young woman who spent a year in Siberia.Yes, Siberia — Novosibirsk, to be exact. She attended an architecture and civil engineering school there, and survived a Siberian winter.“This winter we just had pales in comparison,” she said.Her brother got her involved in last year’s Bike & Build trip — there are several, on different routes — and even though she was not a particularly avid cyclist at the time, she became one pretty fast.“I wasn’t riding seriously until last year’s trip,” she said. “After we got over the Appalachians and hit the plains, I started feeling like a real cyclist.”The bikers average 75 miles per day.Atwood said at age 24, and a recent graduate, she is in a position to do things like this. “I feel [affordable housing] is an issue that needs to be addressed in this country. I’m of the generation that will be moving out of our parents’ houses.” She laughed.“It’s a problem that will affect the future. I have the energy, and I’m not tied down with committments and responsibilities yet.“It’s an opportunity to make a difference.”She is working at the Falls Village Inn and the Black Forest Bakery in North Canaan until she leaves for Portland in mid-June. In addition to making as much money as possible prior to the trip, there is another benefit for Atwood, who did not attend school in Falls Village: It’s a way to make a connection here in Falls Village.Atwood has raised $2,700 of the $4,000 she needs. To contribute, visit www.bikeandbuild.org/rider4952.