The following is another guest post from Caeli Quinn, Co-Founder and Director of Climate Ride, a multi-day bicycle ride to raise money and awareness of climate change. Click here for more details.

Who are the more than 100 people who have raised money to ride their bicycles 300 miles from the Big Apple to the nation’s capital, to make a statement about climate change and renewable energy? Do they have calves like Lance Armstrong? Personal fortunes like Paris Hilton? Aspirations of political fame? A chemical imbalance?

It turns out the Climate Riders are your regular American citizens who have decided to move from the sidelines to the frontline of a critical issue. We struggle with the knowledge that our personal carbon footprints have swelled, that gas prices are gnawing away at our paychecks, and that the world's population will suffer from the repercussions of global warming. Climate Riders have used their training for Climate Ride as an opportunity to make small, yet significant changes to their lifestyles. Many now ride their bikes to work, and are amazed at how they feel invigorated, healthier, and happier, and all they had to do was leave the car keys in a drawer at home.

The Climate Riders include fifty people under the age of 28. Generation Y knows that climate change cannot be ignored and it is not afraid to make its voice heard. Climate Rider Jeff Gustafson, 21, is the coordinator of DC YEA, the Washington DC Youth Environmental Alliance. DC YEA is sending three young people to Brita Climate Ride. DC YEA has grown to include students from American University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Howard University, Catholic University, Gallaudet University, and Trinity University. Their mission: To serve as a dynamic alliance of DC youth creating positive environmental change in our schools, communities, and government. According to the DC YEA, “we have come together with the hope of getting off our own, separate campuses to become a united force for change.”

Climate Ride includes eighteen riders over the age of 50, including Jim Rucquoi, from Sanford, Florida. Jim’s wonderful wife Adele wrote:

I live with a man who absolutely loves our planet…Now, despite his aging and sometimes creeping bones, Jim, at the ripe age of 70, is planning to ride his bike next month from New York all the way to Washington D.C…Personally, I’m proud of Jim’s dream, this longing to show by example that “Mother” [Mother Earth] needs our attention…In my best moments, I know all will be well, that Jim will indeed meet the challenge he’s set for himself and that he’ll come back with first rate feelings, knowing he did something quite spunky…Right now, in all his practicing and hi-speed pedaling around Sanford’s roads, Jim comes home hungry as a bear, emotionally pumped up about his goal and-- the part I like the most--finds energy for all his home chores without complaint.”

Not only is Jim training and spreading the important message of Brita Climate Ride, he is taking the train from Florida to further reduce his carbon footprint. I see why they're called the Greatest Generation.

Me? I am 32 years old, at the tail end of Generation X, right in the middle of the Brita Climate Ride pack. I was born in 1975, an exciting year, people tell me—Wheel of Fortune debuted on NBC; the Altair 8800 was released, sparking the era of the microcomputer; and Olivia Newton John won a Grammy for album of the year. Like Jim and Jeff, I am a regular Joe (Jane, in my case), living in a small town in Montana. Did I know nine months ago that I would dedicate my life to fighting for climate change solutions? Like the Climate Riders, I realized that I could not sit on the sideline any longer. For those of you born in 2008, I hope Brita Climate Ride makes the list of important social movements—the culmination of our collective need to reduce our dependence on oil, develop clean renewable energy, and leave you with a climate that we can be proud of.