-From Maura McKnight, GRID Alternatives Corporate and Foundation Development Manager
Noah Ginsburg, a long-time GRID Alternatives volunteer Team Leader, showed up right on time for our afternoon cycling ride – up the steep slope of Tunnel Road to Grizzly Peak in Oakland. He was sporting jeans, an orange GRID t-shirt, and a heavy backpack full of tools- even a power drill! I, on the other hand, was in my spandex and lightweight cycling gear.
Noah and I are part of the 5-person GRID Alternatives team riding in this year's 240-miles California Climate Ride. As I jokingly referred to his “team spirit”, he replied “I just came from a GRID jobsite!” He had pedaled from the Richmond BART station after serving as a team leader on a GRID Alternatives install.
The many moments I have like this highlight why I love my job. Seeing Noah, who works all week long for at a for-profit solar company and volunteers on the weekend for GRID, taking it a step further by dedicating his Climate Ride fundraising to GRID. It is this type of dedication that is indicative of the “GRID network.” We’re the kind of folks who ride up mountains with power drills on our back in our spare time. We’re the kind of folks who get stuff done. We are 130 employees, 16,000+ volunteers and 4,000+ families strong. We are dreamers and we are doers … and we are growing.
On May 17th, the five members of GRID’s Climate Ride team depart San Francisco for a four day ride to Sacramento. We're biking 240 miles to raise awareness about climate change, environmental justice, and low-carbon transportation while fundraising for GRID and other nonprofits. Our GRID team consists of five people doing our part every week to address climate change and encourage renewable energy adoption: Noah and Justin Bradley work in the solar industry, Beth Trask works on climate and energy policy at Environmental Defense Fund, and Sue Amar just returned from Al Gore’s Climate Reality training in South Africa.
We’ve been in training for months – many of us new cyclists. We’ve been pushing our bodies and training our minds. We’ve climbed big hills, ridden in the rain, and overcome our fears along the way.
I've drawn many parallels between the challenge we all face with climate change, and us facing our fears and growing as cyclists for the ride. Both challenges require commitment, action, and community. So far our GRID team has raised $8,000, which will help GRID with our national expansion in 2014. I am so grateful to the GRID community of employees, families, volunteers and supporters for continuing to inspire me. Together we are making a difference for families and jobseekers and we are generating clean energy and hope!!