Housing cycle

Mattingly to join trek across country with Bike & Build

Friday, March 12, 2010

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by REID SILVERMAN Home for spring break from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Diane Mattingly of Leonardtown cycles on Cedar Lane Road as she trains to participate in Bike & Build this summer. She will cycle with other volunteers across the country, starting in Portsmouth, N.H., and ending in Vancouver, British Columbia, assisting in affordable housing projects and raising awareness of affordable housing issues. Below, Mattingly stops for a break. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo

There's an altruistic side to Diane Mattingly's summertime plans.

Mattingly of Leonardtown, the salutatorian of the Class of 2006 at Leonardtown High School and now a senior at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, has signed up to participate in Bike & Build, an across-the-country bicycle trek with 31 other volunteers from June 20 to Aug. 26. The trip is designed to assist affordable housing projects along the way with free labor and, at the same time, raise awareness of affordable housing issues nationwide.

There's also the opportunity-for-adventure side to Mattingly's plans.

Her participation means that she will put off starting work after she graduates this spring with a degree in chemical engineering.

"It's kind of like the last chance before I'm consumed with work," she said Monday.

A close friend participated in the Bike & Build program a couple of summer's ago and Mattingly was enthralled with the photos of and stories about the places her friend got to see. For instance, her friend spent a week in New Orleans helping build a home to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina.

"It was just unbelievable the things she got a chance to do," Mattingly. "It seemed like so surreal … I've never really been out west … I've never even met someone from North Dakota."

So Mattingly signed on for this summer's ride. Bike & Build offers eight different routes across the country. Mattingly has chosen the northernmost route, which will start in Portsmouth, N.H., and finish in Vancouver, British Columbia, — a 3,802-mile trip. Along the way, Mattingly's group is scheduled to stop and work at a variety of projects between travel days, when they will cycle about 70 miles or so each day. "The longest is 119 miles [in one day], which is just crazy," Mattingly said. Along the way, the cyclists will be hosted by churches or community groups and, in general, will spend their nights in sleeping bags on gym floors.

Mattingly is most excited about seeing Glacier National Park in Montana, she said.

But it's the whole experience that she's looking forward to. The 31 other volunteers signed up for the trip, which includes four leaders who have traveled the route before, have already been in touch through Facebook and e-mail. "Everybody seems so cool and so into it. That's the great part," Mattingly said.

Brendan Newman, a program director of Bike & Build, which is headquartered in Philadelphia, said Mattingly's expectations for the summer are not unfounded. Of everyone he's known who's participated in the past, "it's the best summer they've ever spent in their life," Newman said this week. "It's definitely an incredible experience for anyone who does it."

It's not without cost to the participants, he noted.

"It's a huge commitment," Newman said. Participants must train for the physical demands of the trip beforehand and raise sponsorship funds. While Mattingly was a mid-distance track runner in both high school and college, she has never cycled seriously, she said. She's training now.

In addition, volunteers are required to raise at least $4,000 before the trip, $500 of which can be earmarked by the volunteer to go to a specific affordable housing related nonprofit — Mattingly has chosen Patuxent Habitat for Humanity.

"It's a good match," said Jon Grimm, director of Patuxent Habitat for Humanity, of connecting affordable housing and cycling, two interests he shares.

Patuxent Habitat for Humanity organizes building projects to assist those in substandard or unaffordable housing in St. Mary's and Calvert counties. Since its charter was established in 2003, the group has completed 11 homes for area working families. The hope, Grimm said, is to pick up the pace of those builds in the coming years and complete four to five new homes each year.

Mattingly is volunteering at Patuxent Habitat for Humanity's ReStore, which sells donated home supplies to raise funds for the local habitat office, and Patuxent Habitat for Humanity's office during her spring break. She will also work on a local build with the group before she leaves on her trip this summer, which is a requirement of the Bike & Build program.

Bike & Build only accepts volunteers between 18 and 25 years old. And in addition to physical and building training, volunteers with Bike & Build like Mattingly are putting off or taking a break from paying jobs to participate, Newman said.

It's just that sacrifice and hard work that sends a message to the public, he said. "It's a huge commitment. That level of dedication opens people's eyes," Newman said. "It raises awareness of the issue for certain."

Mattingly is not without exposure to community service and housing issues. She was a young teenager in the fall of 2003 when St. Mary's County was recovering from the effects of Hurricane Isabel. The storm, though downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it plowed through Southern Maryland on Sept. 18 and 19, caused approximately $83 million in damage to the county, according to a damage assessment done by a recovery coordinator. That included 16 homes and two businesses that were totally destroyed by the storm or flood waters.

Mattingly was active in the Civil Air Patrol cadet program at that time and went out with the group to survey the storm's damage. "We helped staff a shelter and completed damage assessment after the hurricane was over," she wrote in an e-mail. She remembers the mangled remnants of people's homes, she said.

That volunteer work with the Civil Air Patrol was important to Mattingly, although it has something she somewhat set aside during her college career. "In college, you are in your own little bubble," she said.

She sees her Bike & Build trip this summer as a return to community service. "I see this trip as a way to get back into that again," she said.

Mattingly is the daughter of Christine "Tina" Mattingly and Mike Mattingly of Leonardtown.

Bike & Build was established in 2002. To date, more than 1,000 participants have cycled cross-country with Bike & Build, collectively raising more than $2.3 million.

scraton@somdnews.com

If you want to help

To donate toward Diane Mattingly's Bike & Build participation this summer, go to www.bikeandbuild.org/donate and search for Mattingly's name under "select a rider" or send a donation to Bike & Build, 6109 Ridge Ave., Bldg. 2, Philadelphia, PA 19128, including Mattingly's name in the memo line of the check.

In addition, the ReStore Recyled Art Show to benefit Patuxent Habitat for Humanity will be held April 23 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Three Notch Theatre in Lexington Park. The show will include a silent auction of art created from ReStore items. Cost is $15 per person. Tickets are available at www.patuxenthabitat.org or at the ReStore at 21768 South Coral Drive in Lexington Park. Call 301-737-6273 for more.