Biking and building

A summer-long journey of handlebars and hammers came to Yuba City Thursday, as a group of 20-somethings parked their bikes to help construct a home.

The work day was part of Bike and Build, a program started in 2002 that takes participants on a cross-country bicycle ride interspersed with working on Habitat for Humanity construction projects.

The trip began more than two months and 3,332 miles ago in Jacksonville, Fla., one of seven cross-country routes taken by 210 Bike and Build participants. The 32 riders in Yuba City come from 16 states and also has one rider from Iran, said Patrick Singler, one of the route's leaders.

"We have a number from New York, a few from California, a couple from Minnesota, a couple from Illinois," Singler of Chicago said. "We have Oregon, Louisiana, Florida, Virginia, all those different places."

Susanna Loewy, a Lafayette, La. native now studying for a doctorate at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said she first heard about Bike and Build from a blind date.

"I never saw him again," she said of her date, "but I looked up the Web site, and here I am."

The entire trip is led by younger adults, Loewy said.

"All of us are under the age of 27," she said. "Everything from where we're staying to our food to where we build and our bike routes is all organized by people our age."

Working alongside the riders on the three-bedroom, two-bath home on Plumas Street was Barbara Campbell, the home's recipient. Part of receiving a Habitat for Humanity home requires family and friends putting in 500 hours of "sweat equity" — in other words, helping work on the house. Campbell said she actually started working on building the house before she was selected to receive it.

"I decided I was going to help build it, whether I was selected or not," she said.

The house has been under construction for the past two years, Campbell said. The house will hopefully be done in the next two or three months.

Tuesday's work day in Yuba City was the last for the riders before their cross-country journey ends on Sunday in San Francisco. The building efforts included spending five days on continuing post-Katrina reconstruction in New Orleans, along with projects in Jacksonville, Pensacola, Fla., Dallas and Farmington, N.M.

"The most rewarding thing is hard to tell, but what I find most rewarding is the inspiration I receive seeing 32 people from all over the country, as well as Iran, working together to fulfill a common goal," Singler said. "I got the chills earlier today when I just stopped and took a breath and saw all these people working together to help some other person."

"More than anything else, I've felt part of a team," Loewy said. "A community that's helping, that's trying to do something positive for the world."

Campbell is just looking forward to when the house is done and she and her 13-year-old son can call it home — instead of the motorhome they've been living in for four years.

"Oh my gosh," she said thinking about moving in. "This is just a blessing for me and my son. I cannot express how much this means for us to have our own home."