The Pedal the Pacific 2023 team meets for the first time in Austin ahead of a seven-week bike tour

Austin, Texas – Pedal the Pacific, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of sex trafficking, is gearing up for a 1,700-mile bike ride along the Pacific Coast.

“We thought why not do something post-release to spread the word about this topic so our friends and family should ask us why we do what we do,” says Savannah Lovelace, co-founder of Pedal. Pacific.

With no experience in cycling, Savannah and two other friends decided to bike from Seattle to San Diego.

Savannah pitched this idea to the Cycleast owner if they could help them, and they agreed.

This weekend, a team of ten female members from nine different US cities will meet for the first time in Austin ahead of their seven-week bike tour.

“It’s great to see a map of where our alumni are, we have 60 alumni now,” says Lovelace.

This is Rachel Newton’s first bike tour and she is very excited about traveling and spreading the word.

“It seemed to me that I knew about the fight against human trafficking in advance, but in fact I did not know the details and knew that there were many misconceptions about this,” says Newton.

Now through the summer, the team will train in their community and raise funds for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

“I’m pleased to see that these people who weren’t familiar with bikes didn’t really know what they were getting into but were passionate about it,” says Hannah Simmons, manager of Cycleast.

If you would like to participate or donate, you can click here.