NHS Grad Still Has A Long Way To Go

Before Biking Across The Country

By Eliza Hallabeck

Nearly everything Jessica Halloran received for Christmas this year was bike related, as she said last week.

That is because Jessica, an illustration major at the Savannah (Ga.) College of Art and Design and a Newtown High School graduate, is preparing to bike from New Hampshire to Vancouver, Canada, this summer to raise money for the Bike & Build Inc, an organization that raises money to help fund affordable housing projects across the country.

“A friend of a friend had done it,” said Jessica, “and that is how I heard about it. Then I went online and checked it out. As soon as I saw it, I was like, ‘This is for me.’ Absolutely.”

Jessica started biking around Taunton Lake during her junior year at NHS, because she needed something that would have a low impact on her knees.

“I had so many knee problems in high school,” said Jessica. “I played soccer for Newtown High and everything. I couldn’t run, because my knees kept falling apart. So I just took up biking, and I loved it. So as soon as I heard about Bike & Build, I just absolutely wanted to do it. And it is a great cause.”

While she has never biked as far as she is about to bike this summer, Jessica said she and her father, Mark Halloran, would bike 40 mile rides together in Florida, where he lives.

Her family was enthusiastic when they learned Jessica was thinking about joining the Bike & Build cause, she said.

Jessica said she knows at least one other person who will be biking from Portsmouth, N.H., to Vancouver with her this summer, but she said an online Facebook group has been created for members to contact each other before the trip. Bike & Build, she said, focuses on college-aged participants.

“I think it is very important,” said Jessica about the cause. “I have lived everywhere, all over the country in different houses, apartments, and a hotel. So I can definitely relate to not having a home, a place to stay that you can call your own. I think it is very important to have that in your life, to have some stability, and it will be very great to bring that to other people.”

Participants are told to pack lightly, food and water will supplied by Bike & Build. Churches and community organizations will house the riders across the distance, and, Jessica said, with the exception of lightning, participants will be biking every day.

To participate, Jessica, and every biker with Bike & Build, has to raise $4,000 minimum before they start biking this summer. Half the money needs to be raised by April, and the other half must be submitted to Bike & Build by May.

“That all goes to affordable housing causes,” she said.

So far, Jessica said she has raised $500 from friends and family, and she expects to put in $1,000 of her own money by the end.

“Hopefully I can raise the rest,” she said.

The trip begins in the middle of June and will last until the middle of August.

“I’ve been biking this whole winter break,” said Jessica about her preparations for the trip, “and I still have a long way to go.”

More information about Jessica’s effort, and a donation link, can be found at her rider page with Bike & Build at www.bikeandbuild.org/rider/3584. During the trip Jessica, and the other bikers, will be updating blogs, connected to the Bike & Build website, with photos and more.