Day -96: Welcome to Spokes 2024!

Hello world! I’m Rebecca, one of the new members of Spokes! I’m a current senior (ahhh), and along with seven other MIT students, I’m planning to undertake the 10th transcontinental bike ride and educational efforts of MIT Spokes. A goal of Spokes is to introduce science and design in exciting ways to students who may not have access to such opportunities. To read more about who’s in our team this year, you can read our intros on this page. 

I don’t take enough photos of myself, so here is a photo of me from March 2023 at the top of Temple Expiatori del Sagrat Cor in Barcelona. Right next to the basilica is an amusement park (but I think being at the top of the basilica was more exciting than any of the rides could have been).

Currently, our team is up to our ears in logistics — we’re route planning, fundraising, getting our learning festivals set up, and so much more! 

My email folder for Spokes: I read most of them, but I’m pretty bad at setting up email filters so they show up as unread in this folder and cause me a bit of stress when I look at it 🫣

We’re also getting excited about training for the ultra marathon of biking 3000+ miles. We’re hoping to incorporate long distance biking into our fundraising efforts, and we’re making plans to do long training bikes and maybe even participate in the Midnight Marathon! That’s when thousands of bikers bike the route of the Boston Marathon the evening before the race. Personally, I’ve been trying to do more indoor biking to 1) work on getting faster and 2) get myself used to being bored while on a bike!

Nice picture from a bike ride to Fresh Pond on a 60 degree day a few weeks ago! Not pictured: so many dogs on walks.

We’re also kicking off our crowdfunding campaign for the upcoming year! We would love to have your support, whether that be through donating or spreading the word about Spokes! The link to donate to Spokes is here. Additionally, before donating, you can check to see whether your employer will match your charitable donations at this link. Every donation helps us achieve our goal of bringing our learning festivals to students across the US! Over the next few months, we’ll be holding some crowdfunding mini challenges, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

We’ll be posting blogs here as we get ready for the trip, but you can also keep track of us through our social media (Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, oh my…)!

That’s about it for our Spokes 2024 Intro Post! I hope everyone reading this is doing well, and we’re so excited and grateful to know that people read these blogs and are supporting us from coast to coast. 

Ending with baklava pancakes from Brookline Lunch because a) I’m very proud of this photo and b) they were amazing and looking at this photo makes me happy, and I hope it can do the same for you!