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EV female mountain bikers group rolling on
BY MELODY BIRKETT
Tribune Contributor
Afew years ago, Tiana Riccardi and Robin Lamb saw a need for a mountain biker group for girls and women only.
The Mesa women already belonged to Hawesaholics, a group with more than 3,000 male and female mountain bikers of all ages and experience levels that Shawn Stenmark started in the name of Hawes Mountain, a popular haunt.
So it was only logical to Riccardi and Lamb to start a spin-off group, Hawesaholics Babes Ride On so that girls and women would feel more comfortable in what has been a male-dominated activity.
“I started riding 2 1/2 years ago and that’s when I met Tiana who was looking for other women to ride with more frequently,” said Lamb. “We went on a ride with four girls,” added Lamb. “Afterwards, Tiana said, ‘We should start a Facebook messenger group’ on the Hawesaholics Facebook page, people would post rides such as, ‘I’m going to ride at this trail, at this pace, on this day. Let us know if anyone wants to come.’”
“We had 50-100 members right away,” Lamb said, adding that HBRO now has almost 500 members. “It’s not meant to take away from Hawesaholics. They do a ton of stuff every year such as group rides, rides for beginners, kids and families.”
Like the larger group, HBRO started posting events with the first one being a ladies’ night.
“It was so much fun,” explained Lamb. “And it was crazy. Crazy in the sense that beginners showed up along with other girls who were total rock stars. People who can throw 50-foot jumps off of things that are fast and aggressive – really talented riders who’ve been doing it for a lot longer. All of them were having a good
Among the leaders of Hawesaholics Babes Ride On are, from left, co-founder Robin Lamb, beginners’ class instructor Gina Dwyer and co-founder Tiana Ricciardi , all of Mesa. (Special
to the Tribune)
seeBIKERS page 15
ASU awards special MLK honor to professor
BY PAUL MARYNIAK
Tribune Executive Editor
It’s been 53 years since the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and the societal change he fought and prayed for seems as much a dream now as it did in 1969.
But as his birthday is commemorated Monday, the countless individuals who have continued his legacy haven’t given up his fight – people like Dr. Neal Lester.
Lester, Foundation Professor of English at Arizona State University and founder director of its Project Humanities, will be recognized for his work Jan. 20 as the first recipient of ASU’s new MLK Jr. Faculty Servant-Leadership Award.
As ASU noted in announcing the award, “Lester’s work not only connects communities, but gives a voice to those who feel marginalized.” He told ASU he was gratified and humbled by the award, which was announced late last year in what was a big 10th anniversary year for his Project Humanities, whose mission is to “bring together individuals and communities, within and around Arizona State University, to instill passion and knowledge of humanities study, research, and humanist thought.
“By exploring shared ideas and experiences, Project Humanities facilitates conversations across diversecommunities to build understanding throughtalking,listening, andconnecting.”
In 2021, Project Humanities received the MLK Diversity Award in Education from the City of Tempe in January and the ASU Committee for Campus Inclusion Catalyst Award for “inspiring and igniting transformation and inclusion.” The culminating anniversary event was a conversation between Lester and King’s daughter, Dr. Bernice A. King, about her family’s legacy and her and the King Center’s global effort for nonviolent social change.
“This all feels cosmically connected,” Lester told ASU.
Lester has been as busy as the cosmos in making connections as he strives to apply the principles that Project Humanities terms “Humanity 101”: compassion, integrity, respect, kindness, forgiveness, empathy and self-reflection.
Those principles, he said, “challenge us to do better and be better people.”
Lester has built a wide variety of programs and activities around his conviction that “culture and difference must be acknowledged, valued and celebrated as elements of our shared humanity.”
“While I get great joy witnessing my students’ “aha!” moments in class…I experience another level of joy when – sometimes years later – they express to me that they see connections between Dr. Neal Lester will receive Arizona State University’s inaugural Martin Luther King Jr. Faculty Servant-Leadership Award as part of the annual MLK Jr. celebration by the university, where he has been Foundation Professor of English since 1997. (Courtesy ASU)
time and super excited to be there. ”
“That’s what ended up being so fun about our group is that we’ve seen people come out of the woodwork and be excited to make new girlfriends they can ride with. They still ride with the guys and enjoy doing that but it’s also fun to have girl time and girl camaraderie that comes through the group. ”
Because most of the “Babes” live in the East Valley, Hawes Mountain and the Hawes Trail System were immediate biking grounds
“Most of us in the East Valley ride a fair amount of Hawes, a fair amount of Usery, depending on what kind of trails we like,” said Lamb.
But over time, they have widened the scope of their jaunts.
“South Mountain or SoMo and Gold Canyon are other frequent places we ride,” Lamb said. “There are a lot of people who like Browns Ranch and McDowell Mountain in Scottsdale. A lot of us like to ride in Sedona, Prescott and the Mongolian Rim in the Payson area… Last spring, we did a big campout overnight trip to Sedona. There are lots of people who’ve gone to parks around the country.”
Good physical shape is not a requirement for mountain biking.
“I know a ton of people who’ve felt overweight or like they wanted to do something fitness-oriented that was more exciting than sitting on a treadmill at a gym and that was also outdoors,” said Lamb. “Mountain biking fit that niche for them and they just progress. ”
While being comfortable riding a bike helps, she added, “There are a lot of trails you can start off with that are mild and you can progress from there. ”
“What’s unique about the sport is you can do what suits your personality and your The Hawesaholics Babes Ride On members take on all kinds of trails on their various jaunts.
(Special to the Tribune)
interests. For instance, some people like long miles and cross-country riding which is going to be a little more flat and flowy riding. You’re not necessarily doing a ton of massive elevation gain. That’s also typically going to be more smooth flowing trails so there are fewer rocks and obstacles.”
Lamb said some riders don’t like the long rides or those with steep inclines, noting that Browns Ranch Trail in Scottsdale as well as Usery Regional Mountain Park or some of the areas at McDowell Mountain are fairly mild trails.
As for time commitment, short loops take up to one hour while some mountain bikers go on camping trips so they can ride hundreds of miles over several days.
The beginners’ class offers “a super slow pace, between 3-5 miles,” explained Lamb. “We give them an opportunity to get on the trail with other people. And that’s also nice because if something goes wrong with your bike or if you run into a cactus, you have people there to help support you and to work through it.” Gina Dwyer, a mountain biker for more than five years, leads the beginners’ class and said it has grown over the past year. Basically, I take them out once a week on Fridays, September through April, when the weather permits in the mornings,” she said. “We do about an hour ride.” Dwyer also teaches trail etiquette, bike positioning, when to brake, and when to climb.
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“It’s good to ride with another person for safety reasons,” Dwyer explained. “You can go out on your own. I’ve done that before. But it’s so much better when you have somebody - especially when you’re new — in case something happens like a tire pops or you fall over or you get lost. You’ve got somebody with you. Being a new rider, it’s always good to get in a group.”
Hawesaholics Babes Ride On also gives back to the community through various service projects.
“There’s a lot of local businesses we try to support,” Lamb said. “We do short, fun track races that are just kind of kickin-the-pants fun. It’s a way for people to interact and have fun and get out and do something healthy at the same time.”
“We do little events like toy drives for Christmas,” added Dwyer. “We do trick or trunk. If somebody is sick or hurt in the group, we do meal trains. It’s so much more than just riding. We have girls’ night out. … It’s just a really fun group.”
There are also professional events
“There are also events professionals do,” said Dwyer. “For example, women can go to a bike shop and learn how to change a tire or learn about their brakes or just their bike in general. We’re just not girls riding, breaking down. We’re fixing our own bikes.”
In addition, the group does trail work for the Hawes Alliance. “We work on the mountain bike trails, build them, take care of them including trash pick-up,” Dwyer said.
Beginners should be aware of one thing: top-of-the-line mountain bikes can be very expensive at $10,000-$12,000. Lamb said a decent starter costs between $3,000-$4,000.
To connect with the group, go to HAWESAHOLICS Babes Ride On through
Facebook or Instagram. ■
Project Humanities planning more initiatives
AFN NEWS STAFF
Dr.Neal Lester isn’t resting on any laurels that Project Humanities has garnered in the last 10 years.
As the Arizona State University program enters its second decade, Lester is planning initiatives for “talking, listening and connecting” that include but go beyond events, homeless outreach, keynotes, podcast discussions, interviews, hackathons and film screenings.
Currently select students are participating in a new Undergraduate Research Ambassador Program that tasks them with a project focused on a specific social justice issue while studying under the mentorship of an Arizona State University faculty member. “Students will present their findings at an Ambassador Expo event set to occur in June 2022,” Lester said with topics that will include “gender-specific pandemic burnout, decreased African/Latinx enrollment in higher education, refugee mental health on ASU’s campus” and other subjects.
Lester also is working on a special 10th Anniversary Viewbook that will showcase “the Humanity 101 principles of compassion, empathy, forgiveness, integrity, kindness, respect, and self-reflection in action throughout Project Humanities history.”
Project Humanities also is working with PBS Indie Lens Pop-Up to present screenings of four films with related panel discussions: Missing in Brooks County, Writing with Fire, Apart, and Try Harder!
Information: projecthumanities.asu. edu/events. ■
THE MESA TRIBUNE | JANUARY 16, 2022
East Valley King parade, festival slated tomorrow
TRIBUNE NEWS STAFF
Mesa will mark Martin Luther King Day tomorrow, Jan. 17, with the annual East Valley Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade, themed this year “Tomorrow is Today.”
The parade will start at 11 a.m. at the intersection of Center Street and MLK Way and travel south on Center Street to First Street, then west on First Street to Robson.
The parade includes marching bands, local organizations, community leaders, elected officials, the Mesa Police Department, and the Mesa Fire and Medical Department.
Following the parade, a community festival from noon-4 p.m. at Main Street and Macdonald will feature food, vendors and kids activities.
People attending the festival are encouraged to donate student and school supplies for Step Up Schools in the donation bins at the event. Step Up Charter School is housed in Mesa’s Washington Park Activity Center and exists primarily for children in need.
Two downtown museums will offer half price admission as well: The Arizona Museum of Natural History will open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. while the i.d.e.a. Museum will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Residents around the parade route or those joining in on the festivities should plan for the following street closures from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. along Center Street between University Drive and 1st Street, MLK Jr. Way/3rd Place from Centennial Way to Drew Street, Centennial Hall Parking Lot to Drew Street, Robson to Country Club and between 1st and 2nd streets, 1st Street between Centennial Way and Country Club, Macdonald between 1st and Main streets, Morris, and Pepper Place at Macdonald.
Most streets should reopen by 2 p.m. Macdonald, which will be closed between 1st Street and Main Street for the festival, will reopen by 7 p.m. Traffic can detour around the parade route by using Main Street, Mesa Drive, Country Club Drive and University Drive.
Mesa’s annual MLK celebrations were created after residents, in 1996, voted to establish a citywide holiday recognizing the leadership of Dr. King. This year’s events are the result of a partnership between City of Mesa and the Mesa-East Valley MLK Committee.
For more information on the MLK celebrations, visit mesaaz.
gov/mlkparade. ■ This map shows the route of the East Valley Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade and the community celebration. (City of Mesa)
LESTER from page 14
texts we’ve explored and their own lives, and particularly the world around them,” he told ASU.
Often it doesn’t take years.
For example, last month a 16-year-old boy who told his family to help him celebrate his birthday by volunteering at the Human Servicers Campus in downtown Phoenix Dec. 11 to participate in Project Humanities’ biweekly Service Saturdays.
There, people who are experiencing homelessness have a chance to pick out clothing and hygiene items that Project Humanities volunteers have neatly laid out so that recipients can pick and choose what they want – almost as they would in a department store. Nuanced actions like that make the recipients feel valued as human beings, and, as Lester noted, “so much of homelessness is about people being denied their humanity. ” And they reflectLester’s feelingsabout “poverty porn” – images, for example, of impoverished people often used by organizations to pull the heart strings of donors so they open their wallets.
“While it may be well-intentioned,” Lester said, “it denies other people their dignity and their humanity. …It does nothing to make you see these individuals as huDr. Neal Lester surveys clothing items that his Service Saturdays volunteers neatly lay out for people experiencing homelessness at the Human Services Campus in downtown Phoenix. Rather than blindly hand them out, the items are arranged so people can pick and
choose their items. (Special to the Tribune)
man and worthy of something that feels like quality. You’re always above them and they always need your help. And it brings up something we used to call – we still call –that sort of white savior mentality.”
It explains why he bristles when people without a home are referred to as “the homeless” rather than “people who are experiencing homelessness.”
“It’s a way of thinking and if you care about language and you care about people’s humanity and you know something about this population, then you know that it’s not an identity that you’re born into, that homelessness is something that can change, depending on your circumstances,” Lester explained.
With part of the nation preparing to reflect on Martin Luther King Jr., it’s only natural to ask Lester if society is more divided or less so today.
“I think our society has always been divided,” Lester replied, explaining that what has changed is people’s access to that division through the 24/7 news cycle and “different ways of communicating” – particularly social media.”
“We’ve always had sex discrimination. And we’ve always had homophobia. We’ve always had racism,” he said, “and the interesting thing is how technology has allowed us to witness that on multiple sides very quickly.”
He refers to his conversations with Bernice King about how some people say her father advocated color-blindness.
“Well, that’s not true. There’s nothing in the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech that says we shouldn’t see difference. In fact, he calls difference out. He says there are some people who live in this nation who are not getting the rights that everybody else is getting. And another instance he talks about there’s a group of folks who have the opportunity and those who don’t.”
“There is a way in which he did acknowledge difference,” Lester said. “Acknowledging difference doesn’t mean you have to deny people their humanity. So, I think every year, we get an opportunity to renew our commitment to what that dream was. But we got to look at the dream as not sugar-coated.” ■
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