Greta Arnquist and Daniela Papi team up with women cyclists for The PEPY Ride

This past winter, 26 year-old New York-native, Daniela Papi and 23 year-old Minnesota-native, Greta Arnquist, both English teachers from Hamamatsu, Japan, decided to ride their bikes across Cambodia.

“Initially, we were just talking about how cool it would be to ride our bikes across Cambodia,” said Daniela.

Both felt strong connections to this country, having fallen in love with the people and culture when they had individually traveled there before. Having visited Cambodia only a few years removed from the devastating and violent regime of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia’s thirst for education and change became the topic of many conversations for Daniela and Greta.

“An entire generation missed out on any education at all and now their desire for change is obvious,” said Daniela.  “We’ve seen their desire in the hundreds of banners that advertise (often un-certified) MBA, computer, language courses all over Phnom Penh.”

Utilizing their bikes to help with the development of sustainable education seemed like the perfect fit. After extensive research, Daniela and Greta decided to fundraise for American Assistance for Cambodia/ Japan Relief for Cambodia. This organization has built more than 250 schools in rural Cambodia since 1999. “We found that our values and ideas went along so well with American Assistance for Cambodia’s mission,” said Greta.

	Cambodian children stop playing to pose for the camera. Photo courtesy of Nerys Rees

Hence, PEPY [Protect the Earth, Protect Yourself] Ride was born.

The PEPY Ride is well on it’s way to raising $35,000 US Dollars for American Assistance for Cambodia in an effort to build a solar paneled school in rural Cambodia equipped with a computer, satellite, and large vegetable garden so that free school lunch will be provided to students. The funding will also cover the salary for a school teacher and chef.

To help reach their fundraising goal, Daniela and Greta set up a Firstgiving online fundraising page [http://www.firstgiving.com/pepyride] at the end of January. 

“Firstgiving was a huge relief!” said Greta. “Within our first week we had raised almost $500.”

Daniela added, “It has been a great tool so far and we imagine that working with Firstgiving will prove to be one of the best moves we have made! We expect a lot more donations on our Firstgiving site in the next few months as we give talks and spread more information about The PEPY Ride.”

In addition to online fundraising, Daniela and Greta have cooked up a plethora of fundraising initiatives and events including: numerous speaking engagements, press coverage, a ski trip, scavenger hunt, fun-run, yoga, pub quiz, and book sale.

Three other women cyclists will join Daniela and Greta including Julia Davies, Alice Beban, and Caroline Samponaro, in their effort to teach Cambodians about protecting the environment and their health, as well as fundraising for American Assistance for Cambodia. In addition to these cyclists, The PEPY Ride is still searching for one or two more female riders who speak Khmer.

The PEPY Ride will take place in late December 2005 starting with a volunteer trip to The PEPY Ride School near Siem Reap. As of June 16, 2005, spots are still available for this trip with the potential for an additional trip in February 2006. The expected 20-30 volunteers will spend four days painting murals, teaching, playing games, working in the garden and meeting the kids at The PEPY Ride School followed by a few days of exploring Siem Reap, Ankgor Wat and surrounding temples.

Then, the cyclists will say goodbye to their supporters and head to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where they will traverse through Cambodia, ending their voyage at the Thailand border. The PEPY Ride is being supported by Bikes Not Bombs, Wintergreen Designs, Mt. Borah, Hanuman Travel and KEEN Footwear. For more information, please visit: http://www.pepyride.org.