If you’re a freshman living in Unit 3, you’ll quickly come to realize that many important human interactions happen between the leaky walls of the coed bathrooms. This is where, one night before Thanksgiving break, Ryan and I began our ongoing conversation about CA Bikes International at Berkeley.

 

Ryan had received an email from “some genius” named Chris, who had founded CA Bikes after moving here from Uganda, and graduating valedictorian from Cal. Chris was hailing any interested students to help him start a student group in support of CA Bikes, Uganda. Ryan was slow to respond to this email, and we worried that someone had taken the job already. When we learned that nobody had, we jumped at the opportunity to even be in Chris’ presence. A Berkeley success story, practically handing us leadership positions in a nonprofit that has to do with mobility, human rights, and the environment: candy to a pair of first year Berkeley students, plagued by the lingering taste of duty that came with our acceptance. The inherited obligation to leave Cal a global citizen certainly motivated our interest in CA Bikes. However, our involvement and ongoing commitment comes from Chris, and all of the sincerity and might that he has put into his project since its birth.

 

Ryan and I started CA Bikes International at Berkeley in the spring of 2013, and its progress has been slow and steady. We are now an established student organization, and with The Good Wheels Exchange up and running, we look forward to watching our growth, and ability to support CA Bikes Uganda take off. We are always looking for new ideas, and new voices to help us spread the word. So hop onto our team! It can’t be any scarier than the coed watering hole that hosted its beginnings

 

–Alastair Boone