Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

When 38-year-old event coordinator Blake Smith Googled the words gay and green, he says the only links that popped up were ads for green Speedos and a green T-shirt with a rainbow flag on it. “We’ve done a lot for so many causes -- HIV, gay marriage—but the green thing hasn’t entered the consciousness yet,” says Smith, who lives in Palm Springs, Calif. “And I feel like it needs to.”

That’s why Smith jumped at the chance to lead a group of cyclists in the Brita Climate Ride, the first multiday bicycle ride to raise money and awareness for climate change and renewable energy. The ride would take him, six other guides, and 120 riders from downtown Manhattan to the steps of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., in late September.

Climate Ride is the brainchild of Montana residents Caeli Quinn and Geraldine Carter, who previously oversaw bike tours for the Berkeley, Calif.–based adventure-travel company Backroads, where Smith also worked from 1999 to 2003.

“We really wanted to do something different,” says Quinn, who began refining the idea for an eco ride with Carter in January. Brita signed on as a sponsor soon afterward. The duo studied successful predecessors like the AIDS Ride to organize their event. All riders who signed on to Climate Ride -- most of whom work in the environmental field—had to meet a minimum fund-raising threshold of $2,250 to participate, with all proceeds to be donated to the project’s two beneficiaries: Clean Air–Cool Planet, which partners with businesses and city governments to reduce carbon emissions; and Focus the Nation, an organization working with educational and community institutions to raise global warming awareness.

Along the 320-mile journey -- spread evenly over the five days, with riders camping out at night --environmental speakers like Randy Swisher of the American Wind Energy Association addressed the participants.

Born and raised in Palo Alto, Calif., Smith earned a bachelor’s degree in communications at Los Angeles’s Loyola Marymount University before hitting the road as a tour leader for Backroads. In 2003 he changed gears and became a cruise director for the gay tour operator Atlantis Events, and this year he helped launch a new gay and lesbian film festival in Palm Springs called Cinema Diverse.