My name is Sarah Fresco and I am the new Cambridge Coordinator for the Green Street Initiative's Walk/Ride Day Program. I am a Cambridge resident, a parent of two children and a long time bike commuter. The story goes back further than that. I walked as child. A lot. My mother did not get a driver's liscence until I was 12 and by then the habit was well establish and while there were plenty of times I had to get rides in the suburban community that I lived in I was not willing to give up the freedom of walking.
I became a bike commuter after college. It wasn't easy to find a job in 1992. Recessions were not new then and they are not now. I had a job in Newton and I lived in Jamaica Plain. It was cheap and fun to ride my bike to work so I did it. Every day.
It was an unseasonably mild February when my daughter Rabiah was born 13 years ago. Even an inveterate walker and intrepid bike commuter feels the necessity to qualify the fact that my husband and I brought her home from Beth Israel Hospital on the 47 bus.
After 3 months of maternity leave I was back on my bike visiting clients for the Somerville Cambridge Elder Services where I was working as a casemanager. Cambridge has a long history of "alternative transportation" In fact judging by what my clients told me about their lives walking, biking and riding the street cars was the norm not the exception only a few decades ago.
Twelve years have passed. We have a second daughter and I have worked as a nanny and for the last four years as the Operations Coordinator for The Uphams Corner Charter School in Boston. In June The Uphams Corner Charter School closed and after a series on emails and conversations with Janie I came to realize that the organization skills and the passion I had for making alternative transportation a part of my daily life could benefit the Green Streets Initiative. I feel fortunate to be coming into the organization at a time when we are truly ready to reap the rewards of the hard work that Janie and many others did over the past few years. People in Cambridge know what Walk/Ride means and it is a happy fun meaning that we can all share in.
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