In the WinterMission class ‘You Break It, You Make It,’ students were presented with the opportunity to take a bicycle apart and put it back together, and in doing so they learned about the different aspects of what makes a bicycle work. 

“I learned a lot about different parts of a bike, which I did not know about before, and how to use certain tools,” Ella Morin ‘25 said. “I like doing stuff with tools, and it seemed fun to be able to do something with my hands rather than sit down the whole WinterMission.”

In addition to the rebuilding of bicycles, this WinterMission also featured three guest speakers: Erick Cedeño (or Bicycle Nomad, to use his online moniker), who has biked famous routes in American history such as the Underground Railroad;  Lean Solis, who partakes in unconventional bike races called alleycat races and is also a pedicab driver; and Rob Baron and Dan Convissor, advocates for the usage of bikes in our area (Convissor is the director of the bicycle advocacy group Bike Tarrytown). 

The students in the WinterMission also talked a lot about the different contexts of biking and the impact of the bicycle on society, including in events like women’s liberation which brought about social change for the better.  “I think the bicycle itself ties into being a power for good,” Upper School English teacher Darren Wood said. Wood ran this WinterMission alongside Upper School English teacher Paul West, Director of Theater Tech Peter Wiley and Upper School music teacher Gilles Pugatch. The main thing that Wood was happy about was how engaged the students were. “They were really into it,” he said. 

Morin spoke of how satisfying the experience of breaking and making her bicycle was. “We got the most ancient bike, so it was pretty hard to take it apart and rebuild it,” she said. “We had to clean all the parts, but it was working again and it was not working before, so we were really proud of ourselves.”