What a Weekend!

We had a great time on the Transportation Alternatives NYC Century this past weekend. Four participants in the Ride For Revolution rode either 35 or 55 miles of the 100-mile route through 4 out of NYC's 5 boroughs. The weather was nice. The scenery was varied and pretty. cars didn't give us much trouble along the route. The pace was good for training. A wide diversity of people came out.

We used it as a chance to both train for our upcoming ride, and (at least as much) as a way to meet others and tell them about the Ride for Revolution and urge them to be part of it and to get to know Revolution Newspaper if they didn't already.

At least a dozens or so people we met knew of the paper, and a couple read it with at least some regularity. Responses to what we were doing ranged from intrigued-and-interested, to excited that someone was doing something like this, to not knowing much about it but being "down" with anything talking about revolution. There were also a few people who wanted nothing to do with it, but far fewer than we had been prepared for.

One of the best things that happened was at the finish line, when we started distributing information to ride participants. One of the event organizers said we couldn't do that where we were and that we would need to have a table. Then, as they read over the postcard we'd handed them they said, "well let's get you a table!" So they went and got us a table. This allowed our display with several issues of the newspaper, postcards about our ride, and fundraising brochures to be a draw for a lot of people and spark many discussions about the paper, the ride, and even some broad discussion about socialism and communism and Bob Avakian's leadership.

Several hundred postcards talking about the ride and letting people know how to get involved were distributed, along with a smaller but significant number of fundraising brochures (those are tough to get out or carry on a bike ride, so we got them out at the end of the ride).

We got ways to reach 8 people who were interested in learning more, including a few who really were thinking about joining the ride.