Ramsey Native Plans Bike Trip Across US

After Ramsey native Michael Collins graduated from RHS in 2006 and the University of Maryland in 2010, he says he was eager to give back.

“Near the end of college, I was anxious to start making a difference in the world somehow,” he explains. “So, I joined the AmeriCorps for two years. It was a great experience, it really changed the person I am.”

For two years after college, Collins worked with the service group, “first as a member with the National Civilian Community Corps where I responded to natural disasters in the Atlantic and Southern regions of the United States, and next as a Crew Leader with the Montana Conservation Corps, where I worked to solve critical wildlife habitat challenges while creating and maintaining access to remote wilderness areas, National Parks, and National Forests.”

Freshly off his work with AmeriCorps, Collins said he has found a new way to raise awareness and funds for an issue he is passionate about – affordable housing in America. And, to do it, he’s training for about six months to become a much better biker than he ever thought he’d be.

Collins first found out about Bike & Build while he was working on a housing project in New Orleans during his time in the AmeriCorps. For the past 10 years, the nonprofit has been encouraging young adults to raise awareness and funds for grassroots housing projects across the country by participating in a cross-country bike ride every summer. To date, the organization has raised over $4 million.

This summer, groups of participants will be choosing one of eight bike routes that span the continental United States.

Collins said he is one of four people who will lead a bike ride across the Southern US, starting in Florida and going through Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California. About 24 riders will be making the trip, which includes stops at various places along the route where participants do volunteer work for some of the affordable housing groups they are trying to support. Collins and his group will stop for a week in New Orleans to help build housing.

The trip, he said, starts in mid-May and should take about two-and-a-half months to complete.

“I’m sure it can definitely be grueling at times, but that’s part of it,” Collins says of his impending trip. “It’s supposed to be a challenge.”

But, by the time this May comes, he says he’ll be up for it. Collins has temporarily moved in with his brother in San Francisco to train for the cross-country trip.

“I needed to be somewhere warm where I could be training for this non-stop.”

Collins says that by the time he leaves for the trip, he will have biked over 500 miles. The former Ramsey High School football player said though he’s ridden a bike before, he was not a cycling expert when he decided to take on the Bike & Build challenge.

“I’m not only helping, but I am really learning this new skill and doing something pretty cool at the same time,” he says.

Each rider on the trip, he said, is asked to raise $4,500 that will be donated to housing agencies along the bike ride. So far, Collins has raised $1,100.

“It’s cool because you have your big housing groups that everyone knows, like Habitat for Humanity, and they are great. But, there are so many smaller, more locally-based organizations that are doing great work and are not as well known. We get the chance to help them out.”

Click here to help fund Collins’ Bike & Build trip across the United States, and find out more about the program here.

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