Bikes and Trails: Tools to Build Community
If you are feeling anything like I have, I am yearning to do something.
I’ve felt stuck—witnessing wildfire crises from afar, injustice toward communities we serve, and changes that shape our lives and nonprofits in our community. My initial reaction looks something like this:
“How can I possibly fix this?”
“I don’t have all the information!”
“What power do I hold!?”
Cue: spiral into powerless paralysis, doom-scrolling, fear, and inescapable sadness.
Then something shifted for me yesterday.
A few weeks ago, I was able to connect a young man who recently moved here from Gaza with a bicycle through Bikes For Neighbors. I heard that he was looking for a job, so I reached out. “Do you have a source of transportation to get to work?” His reply: “No.”
This week, Amir* got a bike—now, he has reliable transportation and can expand opportunities for work. (*Name changed for protection.)
That moment reminded me: small actions are transformative. It’s as simple as keeping our eyes up. Noticing where we can jump in. Believing that we can be the ones to do something. When I return to this outlook, it shifts the ways I notice my relationship to organizing change —right here, in my neighborhood.
Can I offer a welcoming hand to someone at a trailhead who looks uncertain in direction? Will I show up for a public hearing that supports a project benefiting generations to come?
This is where we begin.
Start within—metabolize emotions, go ride your bike, take a walk in sun, observe the quiet of the forest, and take care of yourself so we can be present for one another. Then, one more small yet mighty step toward community care: donate a bike, attend a public hearing, gather over a potluck, or show up for a trail work training day.
Small actions shift our psychology. They orient us toward change-making, give us agency, create a sense of togetherness, and take us from powerlessness to possibility. That’s real.
✨ Join a trail work training day w/ world-class trail expert, Rich Edwards – Sign up
🚴 Donate a bike or volunteer for Bikes for Neighbors – Learn more
🌲 Attend our community potluck (with virtual options!) – RSVP now
🍽 Celebrate a 20-year partnership with Massanutten and the release of the Master Trail Plan over dinner at the Loft – RSVP
📝 Fill out our yearly community feedback form so our organization can allocate resources and engage appropriately – Take the Survey
👟 In H’burg? Attend the N. Main Street Sidewalk Project Open House (2/5) – Learn More
🎉Get Outside with Others: Rocktown Bicycles is hosting a free gravel ride this Sunday where donations will benefit the Shenandoah Rail Trail.
The infamous Super Bowl Sunday Ride is back (not Coalition-sanctioned, ride at your own risk), and the Wednesday Night Social Ride is still going strong.
Maybe none of these speak to you. I’m curious (yes, respond and let me know!) what else can we do? How can we orient toward community action? What are YOU doing?
In the coming months, this will look like more National Forest, Sunset Park, and Seven Bends trail work days, community hearings for the Shenandoah Rail Trail, the launch of a new program to bring folks closer to our work year-round, group rides, and youth/adult bike lesson collaborations. This is what our work at the Coalition has always been about – tangible acts in everyday life, right here in our community.
I’ll end this with a reminder mostly to myself—but maybe you need it too:
We aren’t powerless. Stuckness, uncertainty, and worry shift to hopeful action – each pedal stroke, trail, and simple, generous hand at a time.
Let’s build the world we want to live in, with the bike and the trails, as our tools.
Amanda Presgraves,
Director of Community Enchantment
