Rachel Shin, Contributing Photographer

Rock to Rock, an environmental fundraising organization, is raising support for its forthcoming annual Earth Day bike ride at East Rock Park this Saturday. 

Rock to Rock has partnered with 21 Connecticut climate groups in its fundraising effort, including Massaro Community Farm, Common Ground and Gather New Haven. According to its website, the organization has already collectively raised over $120,000 in 2022 with its partner organizations. The Earth Day ride is open to cyclists and hikers of all skill levels, featuring multiple different route options. The metric century, or 60 mile, 40 mile, 20 mile and 12 mile routes begin at East Rock, pass through West Rock and loop back to conclude at East Rock. Rock to Rock has also organized shorter family rides, such as a 5-mile base to summit ride and a 1-mile ride within East Rock. There are also options for noncyclists, including hikes and a flat walk. The ride will culminate with the Green Fair, an Earth Day festival featuring food, live music and environmentally themed activities such as a bike safety training. 

“The ride is meant to support environmental work and build community, mainly by increasing the resources to expand environmental projects locally,” Rock to Rock co-leader Chris Schweitzer told the News. 

Rock to Rock has been hosting its earth day ride annually since 2009. Usually, the ride draws about 1,100 participants, Schweitzer said. In 2020, the ride was fully remote and individual. Last year, roughly 400 people attended a highly staggered, distanced in-person ride, and this year Schweitzer expects an in-person turnout of 800. Because the ride does not overlap with Yale’s Spring Fling as in past years, Schweitzer also hopes to see a greater student turnout this weekend, he said.

Rock to Rock still encourages riders to stagger their rides and to ride in small groups to protect public health. 

The event’s popularity and large number of participants resulted in the wide range of route options, Rock to Rock co-leader Anna Pickett said. As interest in the event increased over the years, organizers added both more challenging and more family friendly routes to the slate. Organizers configured the routes to showcase the city’s landscape, Pickett said. 

“We like to choose routes that feature New Haven’s parks and other natural beauty,” Pickett said. “Also, my organization, Urban Resources Initiative, plants New Haven’s street trees. So, on Saturday, we will have high school planting crews out, and all the longer routes will ride by the planting crews.”

Rock to Rock has been hosting public events in order to build excitement for their upcoming ride. They held an outdoor launch party at Koffee? in early March, and a meetup at the Patagonia store on Broadway on April 21. These events provide an opportunity to garner support for the cause and allow cyclists to interact with organizers, Schweitzer said.

Each partner group carries out their Rock to Rock fundraising individually, competing to raise the most before the day of the event. Massaro Community Farm currently tops the leaderboard, having raised $55,592 as of Tuesday afternoon. 

Every partner group also creates its own team of cyclists, and some design team uniforms or participate in team gimmicks. The Massaro Community Farm cyclists brand themselves as the Massaro Melonheads and will sport matching neon green T-shirts and watermelon-patterned helmets during the ride. There was also a T-shirt design contest, won this year by Jodi Kaplan. The shirt is available for purchase on the Rock to Rock website. 

“Riders will be very competitive to have the best costumes,” Rock to Rock recruiter and cyclist Paul Proulx said. “They’ll come up with some very unique profiles for their teams. One year we had a band on a cargo bike playing as they were riding.”

The Green Fair, an after party and the Earth Day celebration will cap off the event. The fair will feature food trucks; live music from local artists The Spanners and Lara Herscovitch and environmentally themed entertainment, such as a bike safety “road-eo,” Pickett said. 

East Rock Park is located at 41 Cold Spring St.