Some families play soccer together, some play baseball, for the Jolly family, well, they’re all about bikes! As members of this cycling family Amy Jolly and her 13-year-old daughter Jazzy are looking forward to pedaling Climate Ride California this September and this impressive mother-daughter pair will be bringing more than their committment to the bike on the ride too.
Keeping a keen eye on making cycling a positive experience for their kids in the beginning, it wasn’t long before it became something all the Jolly’s, quite simply, love to do and love doing together. “Riding is just what we do as a family, it’s not unusual for us to go on a 30-mile family ride over the weekend,” said Amy. Jazzy develops her cycling skills outside family rides too, having completed two street skills classes, volunteering for her local bike coalition and at bike rodeos as well. She completed Levi Leipheimer’s Piccolo Fondo last year for the first time and is excited to take this challenge on again this year, in addition to Climate Ride—she’s definitely inherited the cycling bug from her parents.
Amy’s commitment to cycling extends beyond her family and she is using it to promote a greener planet too. She works on the Climate Protection Campaign in their youth leadership program, a Sonoma County wide initiative in both public and private high schools. Running an award-winning student commuting project, Amy encourages students to walk, bike or carpool to reduce Sonoma County schools’ greenhouse gas emissions. She gives student leaders of Green Clubs or Environmental Action classes the informational tools they need to spread awareness of climate change issues and encourage other students and their communities to get on their bikes and ride. For Jazzy, she has the same excited tenacity to “save our planet” as she does for pedaling.
Back home, the Jolly’s are getting ready to launch on their first family bike tour—a great training ride for this mother-daughter team- pedaling from Portland, Oregon to the coast of Astoria, Oregon and up into Washington. They’ll all be traveling by train for the non-cycling portion of the trip, making the entire family vacation car free!
Look for them on this year’s California Climate Ride!
