Before sunrise, the BRAG Dream Team readies for adventure. In the predawn glow, seven Georgia high school students and their five adult mentors break down tents and tune up bicycles for another 40-mile day along the East Coast Greenway. After breakfast and a round of stretching, the students gather for a morning pep talk before strapping on helmets and pedaling together single file into the brightening day.
The Dream Team, launched in1994, started as a way for Atlanta-based Bike Ride Across Georgia, or BRAG, to get area middle and high school students excited about cycling. Each summer, BRAG hosts a week-long, family-friendly biking tour, and this year the 404-mile ride also served as training for a cadre of students eager to take on a greater challenge—completing 3,000 miles of the East Coast Greenway.
With 2024 highlighting 30 years of BRAG Dream Team in Georgia, the group partnered with East Coast Greenway Alliance for a celebratory cycle from Miami to Bangor, Maine. They headed out June 17, staying overnight in Savannah June 23 and 24, and are slated to complete the journey by July 21.
It's not just about the bike
For Coach Atiba Mbiwan, working with young people as they experience many of the profound lessons of long-distance cycling, is a dream he’s realized each summer for the past 29 years. He sees how students grow stronger mentally and physically each day as they pedal forward.
“There’s a range of riders, different strength levels and ability,” considered Mbiwan. “And in the beginning, we move slower, but we learn patience, and we stay together. Once they are in rhythm, the team is unstoppable.”
Mbiwan, who is also vice chair of the East Coast Greenway Alliance, ensures the students are well-mentored with four additional adults and well supported with a cargo van and 15-passenger bus conveying personal gear, food, water, bike tools, and maintenance parts.
Originally established for middle and high school students in Atlanta, BRAG Dream Team now boasts local clubs around Georgia. When Coach Anita Collins learned about the team, she knew she wanted to be part of beginning a chapter in Brunswick. In 2017, Collins teamed up with BRAG to kick off Dream Team Gullah Geechee Club and called friends and friends of friends to see if their children would like to learn to ride. And since then, she’s been facilitating opportunities for young people to learn more about themselves through cycling as well as gain insight into the legacy of their ancestors.
“I’ve always been one who rode a bicycle, but it was casual biking,” chuckled Collins. “When we started the club, I remember doing the BRAG Spring Tune Up, a three-day preview of the summer seven-day ride. It was in Rutledge, Georgia, and I found I was less than a novice. I did lots of riding, but it’s all flat here. We’ve gotten much smarter about hills. Now we train for hills by going back and forth across Sidney Lanier Bridge.”
And those smart training tactics are paying off, especially for 16-year-old Kaleb Bradshaw who, with Coach Collins’s mentorship, has completed four summer BRAG Dream Team tours. Bradshaw became interested in bikes at age 12 when his sister, Kaitlyn, came home with a road bike from the program.
“She had this nice bike, and it was so fast. I rode it up and down the street, and I wanted to do it, too,” recalled Bradshaw. “I’ve learned so much, riding as many miles as we do, it’s more a mind game out here. You may feel tired at mile 20 or 30, but you have to keep a positive mind and keep going. We’re doing 40 miles a day on this ride, and it comes down to your mindset to do it.”
Bradshaw’s sister and brother Kyle—the siblings are triplets—are also BRAG Dream Team alumni. This summer, Kyle rode with the team early on during the East Coast Greenway tour until it was time to fulfill his commitment to summer football camp.
'I am learning patience'
Layla Davis, 16, also from Brunswick, is new to the Dream Team. Best friends with Kaitlyn Bradshaw, Davis knew the challenges and wanted to be part of the adventure. She completed this year’s BRAG ride from Atlanta to Savannah, then a week later was headed out again with the team in Miami.
“I am learning patience,” emphasized Davis. “You have to pace yourself. At first, I did a lot of stopping and going. I struggled some, but after a couple of days, it becomes a routine. I got the hang of it.”
As if cycling 30 to 40 miles per day, setting up and breaking down camp, and regularly getting up at 5 a.m. weren’t enough, the young riders also read books, discuss them, and keep a journal fueled by writing prompts from their mentors.
“We journal about museums and the experience of the ride,” said Bradshaw. “As you journal, you’re able to think back about the day with perspective and think about the most memorable things that happened.”
Coach Collins is quick to point out that students aren’t asked to fundraise, that corporate and group sponsors through BRAG underwrite all costs for them. The East Coast Greenway Youth Bike Tour, then, serves as fundraiser for the Dream Team.
“When people see what these young people are doing, it inspires them to pitch in and support,” emphasized Collins. “Just by doing what they are doing—riding, being respectful, working together—it inspires people. People see that spirit and want to donate. The students aren’t selling candy or cards or chocolates. We want the students to just get on their bikes, soak up the experience, and learn.”
For Dennis Markatos-Soriano, executive director with East Coast Greenway Alliance, the Dream Team partnership is one more way to help connect the 450 communities along the route between Miami and Maine. The Alliance seeks to assist cities and towns in constructing multi-use paths accessible to pedestrians, cyclists, and wheelchair users. Since the organization’s creation in 1991, they have completed 1,100 miles of greenway between Canada and the United States, with remaining portions of the 3,000-mile route comprised of the safest roads and paths currently available.
“We are so happy to host the ride and bring the East Coast Greenway to life,” said Markatos-Soriano. “A ride like this creates connections across generations, cultures, and communities. And it is an honor to have Coach Atiba on our board and team up with him to make this amazing summer happen. Our goal is for a smooth, safe, and life changing experience that will launch these young riders into the world as they make their mark.”
Markatos-Soriano goes on to explain the crucial moment the United States now faces in terms of federal infrastructure funding. As growth in the Southeast continues rapidly and as federal budget allocations increase for new road construction and all infrastructure, communities along the East Coast Greenway are at a turning point. Markatos-Soriano emphasizes that “over the next three years we have the option either to build transportation with a deeper dependence on cars or build a new paradigm of sustainable transportation.”
He's hoping the visibility of the BRAG Dream Team riding through communities along the east coast will help more locals see the social, physical, and economic benefits of incorporating safe biking and walking paths in more places where they live.
As for Bradshaw and Davis, both riders consider the experience a fun opportunity for challenging themselves, learning, and building relationships with their friends and coaches.
“Coach Collins says this is like a metaphor for life,” reflected Davis. “You have your up days and bad days, and you just have to keep moving. You have to persist and keeping going.”
Learn more about and donate to BRAG Dream Team: greenway.org/dreamteam
East Coast Greenway: greenway.org
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