2007 Tour Journals

Day 1 BTC Journal – Manchester to Ellington

Started the day with 7:30 mass at St. Bridget. The parish community sent us off with a blessing. We rode to Hartford uneventfully and arrived at the House of Bread Food Kitchen where we met with and engaged in conversation with some of the 230 clients fed that morning. The House of Bread provides a meal up to 10:00 on Sunday mornings. One client came too late to receive his meal and was turned away. Apparently he had been habitually late but Sue Ryan felt bad for him and shared some of our goodies with him. Although he did ask for coffee which she did not have. We met some very interesting people and heard some interesting stories. One client had just lost his job and as a result his apartment as well. He comes to the Food Kitchen to save money so he could get his apartment back.

Another client came out and asked if we were a gang. A very interesting comment. After we explained to him we were riding for poverty awareness, he understood what kind of gang we are. Several of us had quite lengthy conversations with clients and further educated ourselves. It was also a great introduction to our mission for our new participants to BTC. So it goes, we continue to learn more about poverty in Connecticut. We left after closing and biked over to the Civic Center for some engaging with people. There was a convention going on so there were quite a lot of people to engage with.

We next biked over to the Salvation Army at South Marshall Street and met with Sandy Barry. She was quite amazing and shared what her facility does for about 27 clients who can be accommodated at their facility. Their building was once part of the Travelers so the rooms were very well equipped for the clients especially the privacy. The Salvation Army does their best to educate as well as provide a living place to stay and live with some dignity. When asked, Sandy stated the most important cause of poverty is the lack of affordable housing. Without housing, all else breaks down.

We went to the Capital and had a nice lunch on their grounds and remained visible to as many people as possible. We rested up for our ride to The Cornerstone Soup Kitchen in Rockville. When we got there, Channel 61 was there to greet us but no one else showed up as we expected, so we rode over to St. Luke’s in Ellington, showered in the homes of parishioners, went to mass and shared a supper with those parishioners who came to our presentation. After the presentation we went back to the homes of those parishioners socialized some and then went to bed.
Up at 7:00 to start our ride to West Hartford and Holy Family Retreat Center.

Day 2 BTC Journal – Ellington to West Hartford

We had a great night’s sleep except for Ron who had to share a bed with Fred and Johnnie F. Most of us stayed in parishioners homes and were grateful for their hospitality. Some of us ventured home but returned in the morning to begin the ride with the rest of the group. Our hosts prepared a wonderful breakfast to start us off. The coffee hit the spot. We left St. Luke’s at 8:30. We again headed for Hartford and the Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen, a 20 mile ride.

The day was perfect as we rode through the countryside in Ellington, through East Windsor and then into North Hartford. We noticed the contrast very quickly. We altered our route some and rode down Albany Avenue to engage with the people again. We were cheered on and greeted quite warmly. One man yelled to us that he saw us on TV and gave us a big thumbs up! The ride was rewarding as we interacted with many people on the street. When we arrived at Loaves and Fishes, we were greeted with open arms and even got a tour of the facility at Emmanuel Congregational Church. We had lunch with the clients and waited our turn just as they have to. We received a ticket, sat in an empty chair wherever and received our prepared meal. We ate what was given just as the clients did. No choice just what was served. And even then it was not that filling but we experienced what the clients go through on a regular basis. We shared the meal and listened to their stories. One couple was there with their 2 month old daughter. The father shared with me how he had just regained his drivers license and could now get around more freely and did not have to depend on the unreliable bus schedule.

He asked us to share the housing problem in Hartford when we visited Chris Dodd’s office.
So after leaving Loaves and Fishes, we headed over to Dodd’s new office in Hartford and met with his representative, Mark Stephano. We had met with Mark several times on previous rides. We were surprised that he seemed less informed now than when we first met with him four years ago. This was very disappointing.

We then biked over to Plainville to the Community Food Pantry. We were all impressed with this facility and how clean, well-stocked, they were with food and clothing, They had the place set up like a normal grocery store to make the clients feel more comfortable and dignified when they came to partake.

We were greeted by Susie Woerz, the director of the facility and she enthusiastically showed us around, She was also preparing for a convention this Friday on Child Poverty and had done a lot of research on the internet to gather statistics for her part of the presentation. It’s a small world since she would be spending time with Doug Hall at the same convention.
Small world. After a satisfying tour, we started the ride back and to the Holy Family Retreat Center. We got our own rooms and hot showers and shared a wonderful, awesome dinner. Thank you Father Terry! We finished the day with mass celebrated by Father Stephen.

Day 3 – BTC Journal - West Hartford to Woodstock

We had a great night at Holy Family and began day 3 with 7:00 mass lead by Father John who was inspiring. After mass we had a wonderful breakfast of eggs and bacon and several boxes of cereal. They even put out lunch meat and bread for us to make out lunch for the day.

We left around 8:0 and began our ride to Woodstock. The ride was back through Rockville and we experienced those hills again. It was hot with temperatures well over 90 degrees. We endured and kept riding and drinking a lot of water. We had a lovely lunch at St. Matthew’s parish in Tolland and we connected with the janitor there who thought it would be a good idea to come back and do our thing.

We had established only one stop this day around 4:00 p.m. at a Project Northeast Food Pantry in Putnam run by Sister Eleanor Baldoni and Father Archambaugh at St. Mary’s church. Sister Eleanor spoke to us for some time and shared some of her experiences while doing her ministry. She has been doing this for 29 years. She told us of the many families they help with food and even paying bills. She shared how rewarding it is to help as many people as she can and all she wants in repayment is a big hug. She and Father are doing a great service for the Putnam area. Their Food Pantry actually serves 10 towns. We were all impressed with all they do.

While there, we decided it would be best to not continue to the YMCA Camp in Woodstock. We were mot sure of the facilities, the availability of power to charge our cell phones and walkie talkies so we changed our course of action. We decided to go back to Manchester and St. Bridget and start tomorrow’s ride from there instead. This way we get a good night’s sleep and still have a decent ride of over 50 miles in the next day’s heat.
Everyone agreed that this was a good idea. We were fortunate there was no presentation this night.

During the day, we did connect with a driver who asked us about our ride and when she heard we were from St. Bridget she mentioned she was the cousin of Jay Moran and was a member of St. Timothy’s parish in West Hartford. We asked her to contact Jay and that we would be in touch for a possible future engagement. She liked the idea and wished us well as she drove off.

All in all it was a great day. We will meet at St. Bridget at 6:45 to begin our next day’s ride.