Repairing three flat tires in one day and body aches won’t stop three Texas natives from pedaling 1,700 miles down the Pacific Coast for a cause.
Sara Belmer, Savannah Lovelace and Grace Pfeffer rode through Santa Barbara last week on their journey to San Diego from Seattle.
The women created their campaign, Pedal the Pacific, and the journey to draw attention to sex trafficking in America while raising $75,000 for the Refuge Ranch, a nonprofit restorative care facility outside of Austin, Texas, that will house 48 child victims of human trafficking.
The organization provides long-term, holistic services to girl survivors ages 11 to 17. The 50-acre facility is to open in late 2017.
So far, the trio has raised more than $50,000.
On their stop in Santa Barbara, they talked about their cause and their fundraising ride.
“Believing in our cause is keep us going,” said Lovelace, 22, a recent University of Texas at Austin alumna from Plano, Texas.
The riding gear and bikes grab the attention of passers-by, with “Hilariously un-athletic girls … cycling to end human trafficking” embroidered on the back of their light blue jerseys. They camped and couch-surfed their way down the coast, and were hosted in Santa Barbara at the Hope Ranch home of Ann and Ed Richards.
“We are three very normal college girls,” said Belmer, 22, a recent University of Arkansas graduate who grew up with Lovelace in Plano. “We had an idea and wanted to help make a difference.
“Thinking about the survivors at the Refuge Ranch, and the opportunity to help is unreal.”
Pfeffer, 23, is a Houston native and graduate of UT Austin, where she roomed with Lovelace. She first became aware of human trafficking after living for a time in Thailand as a teenager. After she completes the Pedal the Pacific ride, she’ll be going to work for Refuge Ranch in Austin.
The trio expects to finish their journey Aug. 3 and ship their bikes back to Texas.
Click here for more information about Pedal the Pacific. Click here to make a tax-deductible online donation to Pedal the Pacific.
In the last several months, Santa Barbara County law enforcement agencies, including the Sheriff’s Department and the Santa Barbara Police Department, have conducted numerous sting operations to rescue victims of human trafficking, Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Karapetian told Noozhawk.
The effort has resulted in several arrests for pimping, pandering and, recently, one for human trafficking, she said.
“This proactive victim-centered approach is a huge step in the right direction,” Karapetian added.
A Needs Assessment of Domestic Child Sex Trafficking in Santa Barbara County report states the region has “ample evidence that the heinous crime of domestic child sex trafficking is a disturbing and present reality each day in our community.”
The 2015 report recognizes that other survivors remain unidentified, but confirmed 45 survivors in the county, 80 suspected survivors and 461 children “extremely vulnerable” to domestic child sex trafficking.
One in five missing children are or will become human trafficking victims, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
More than 45 million people internationally are living as modern slaves, according to a 2016 Global Slavery Index study.
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
