Second Summer Cycle is a September 14 fundraising bike ride benefiting local nonprofits, including Resilient Roots. Biking on the Cape is one of the joys of life, and when you are doing it for a good cause, all the better! All money raised by Resilient Roots riders goes to our environmental education programming aimed at creating healthier and more abundant landscapes for all Cape Codders.
You can join us in this great event in three ways:
Sign up to ride for Team Resilient Roots by emailing grow@resroots.org
Sign up before July 1 and be entered into a raffle for a $100 gift certificate to Scargo Cafe!
Volunteer to help out the day of the ride by emailing sprout@resroots.org
Donate to our team, or to individual team members, to help us reach our $20,000 team goal by clicking the button or scanning our QR code
Rider Highlight: Deb Winther
Some people take to their rocking chairs upon retirement. Resilient Roots board member Deb Winther is once again pulling out her bike.
“I don’t feel any different,” she says about turning 70 a couple of weeks ago. “I feel good. I feel like, I can do this. I’m ready.”
This is training for the Second Summer Cycle, a Cape-wide charity bike event. On September 14, riders will be pedaling loops of their choice: 15, 34, 60, or 101 miles starting and ending at Smugglers Beach in South Yarmouth to raise money for 20 local nonprofits. Deb is tackling the 34-mile distance for the second year to support Resilient Roots.
“I’ve always ridden my bike, since I was a kid, so I’ve never really stopped riding,” she said. “I’ve ridden my bike for pleasure my whole life, I could say. But this is the only bike event I’ve ever participated in.
“Because it’s a fundraiser, I feel like I’m doing something worthwhile, raising money for a good cause. At the same time, I’m having fun, because I’m not just riding by myself; everybody is out there together having a great time.
“And there’s no pressure: you don’t have to ride a certain speed. It’s just a nice enjoyable ride, and that fits in with the way I like to ride when I’m alone. So it’s not a stressful event.”
Deb also pointed to the event being well organized and safe as reasons for participating again this year.
“Everybody was so nice last year; if you stopped for any reason, nine people would stop and ask if you needed help,” she laughed.
Supporting the environmental education efforts of Resilient Roots, of course, drives her as well.
After retiring from her accounting job in 2020, Deb turned her attention to earning a Permaculture Design Certificate from Cornell University’s Office of Continuing Education and began transforming her own South Dennis yard from a barren space of hard-packed sand to a healthier landscape that would support pollinators, birds, and other wildlife. Participating in workshops and permablitzes through Resilient Roots eventually led to her volunteering on the board of directors as treasurer.
Deb estimates she’s replaced 80 percent of her front yard with garden beds of edible and native plants, including a peach tree guild (a collection of plants supporting the growth of a fruit tree). Another section features a food forest with plants like blueberry, hazelnut, and elderberry.
She has also focused on creating “soft landings” around nearly all her trees.
“You leave the leaves around the trees and plant native plants to create a habitat for the full life-cycle of pollinators and beneficial insects,” she explains. Insects lay eggs on the trees, the larvae hatch and drop to the ground, overwintering in the leaf litter, feeding on the plants, and the cycle continues. Deb has noticed more types of bumblebees, beneficial wasps, and other garden helpers moving in.
“I didn’t have any fireflies when I moved in,” she adds. “Now I have fireflies.”
Deb notes that transforming your yard takes time, as planting edible plants may first draw insects that will eat that food, for example, and only later will draw insects and other critters that will eat the food-eating insects. "You'll have balance eventually, but it doesn't happen overnight. You have to have patience."
Kind of like training for a bike event. "It's worth all the time and effort to be involved, because we're raising money for a good cause," she said.