Cyclists with Pedal the Pacific raised awareness about sex trafficking on Sunday in Montecito during one stop on their annual 1,700-mile journey down the West Coast.

The program trains a new team of college-age women each year to bike from Seattle to San Diego. During that journey, they raise awareness about sex trafficking, meet with public officials and survivors, and raise money for the cause.

This year’s 10-member team started their journey in early June and arrived in Santa Barbara on Saturday. They have raised more than $95,000 of their $100,000 goal thus far to donate to nonprofit organizations combating sex trafficking on the West Coast.

All Saints By-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Montecito hosted a public forum, “Shining a Light on Sex Trafficking of Girls in Santa Barbara,” and invited the community to learn about the realities of sex trafficking in Santa Barbara County and take action against it.

Cycling together in matching outfits is an effective way to catch people’s attention and start conversations about sex trafficking, according to Pedal the Pacific program director Emma Pitcock.

“Those conversations are just trying to bring awareness to the realities (of sex trafficking), not allowing the misconceptions to continue, and talking to people about what it really looks like,” said Pitcock, a 2021 alumna of the ride.

Sally Cook is the director of development and community engagement for Olive Crest’s Hope Refuge campus, which offers residential care for minors who are survivors of sex trafficking.

She helped several dozen attendees understand what sex trafficking is, how it operates, what makes a person high risk and how to identify signs of trafficking.

“I’m thrilled the way All Saints is engaged in the fight,” she said. “They’re not looking the other way.”

Cook described Santa Barbara as a “corridor town” for sex trafficking because of its location on Highway 101 between areas such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.

The local tourism industry makes it an especially desirable place for trafficking, she said. 

“It’s very much an issue here,” Cook emphasized.

Assessing sex trafficking and offering support for survivors is necessary to addressing it locally, Cook said.

Olive Crest’s Hope Refuge campus helps meet this need at its campus in the mountains west of Goleta.

Tiffany Carty, supervisor of the Victim-Witness Assistance Program of the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office, further emphasized the importance of sex trafficking awareness locally. 

The Santa Barbara County Human Trafficking Task Force identified 279 survivors from 2017 to 2025. Of these survivors, 97% were female and 28% were minors, she shared.

“A lot of times people think of it as a big issue with foreign nationals, but the reality is, it’s our kids, it’s our community’s kids that this is happening with,” Carty said in her presentation.

Carty encouraged attendees to identify smaller ways they could contribute to the larger fight against sex trafficking, such as following sex trafficking-related policy, making donations to local organizations and writing letters to local legislators.

The gathering concluded with a brief introduction to Pedal the Pacific’s mission by Pitcock and testimony from two of this year’s cyclists.

“(It) was so encouraging to hear how the community in Santa Barbara is so attuned to this issue and so eager to learn more,” Pitcock said.

“There were so many people at this forum today, and it was so encouraging to see how many people were humble enough to say, ‘I want to learn more.’”

Recent Pepperdine University graduate Sedrie Orantes said she applied to Pedal the Pacific to educate herself about sex trafficking while making a difference.

“Although there were days when it’s raining the whole day, and we have to get up and ride the whole day, we have a reason to do that, and so it helps us keep going,” she said.

Colorado State University graduate student Olivia Sobieszczyk said she has worked toward a career in combating sex trafficking, and saw Pedal the Pacific as the perfect way to take action.

“I thought it was so cool that I was finally able to use my passion and my voice in this empowering way,” she said.

Each riding team undergoes months of training on topics such as trafficking, fundraising and advocacy, as well as physical preparation for the nearly two-month journey.

The program serves as a leadership development program for the young women, inspiring them to carry their advocacy beyond the journey, which concludes in San Diego this weekend, Pitcock said.

Orantes said one of the most touching moments was when they met in Lompoc with a survivor who told the team how much their program meant to her.

“For years, the topic of sex trafficking was kind of shut down for me,” Orantes said. “I found my outlet, and now I have this amazing community, and I get to use my voice and advocate.”

Last week, the team was hosted in Lompoc by the North County Rape Crisis & Child Protection Center and met at the Hilton Garden Inn with representatives of the Dignity Health Safe Haven, Lompoc Rotary Club, the Lompoc-Vandenberg Branch of the American Association of University Women and Vandenberg Space Force Base.

While there, the riders honored Ann McCarty, the recently retired executive director of the Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center, a beneficiary of Pedal the Pacific fundraising.

McCarty, a longtime supporter of the team, was presented with a Year 10 Pedal the Pacific jersey, and a video compilation expressing gratitude and memories from alumni riders.

The team stayed with local host families in Santa Barbara and, in addition to the All Saints Church Outreach Committee forum, met with prosecutors and investigators from the District Attorney’s Office to discuss sex trafficking.

They were hosted for a dinner at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden by the Junior League of Santa Barbara, which established and provides ongoing support for S.A.F.E. (Saving At-risk Youth from Exploitation) House Santa Barbara, a six-bed, Short-Term Residential Therapeutic Program designed to meet the specific needs of minor girls who have been liberated from sex trafficking.

Before heading to Port Hueneme on Monday, First District Supervisor Roy Lee hosted them for lunch at his Uncle Chen’s restaurant in Carpinteria. Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Karapetian, a fellow cyclist, joined them on their ride to Carpinteria.

Other South Coast sponsors included Los Arroyos Mexican Restaurant, Noozhawk and the Santa Barbara Club.

The 2026 Pedal the Pacific team has a goal of raising more than $100,000 for their cause. As of July 20, the riders had raised $95,909.

In its 10-year record, the nonprofit organization has raised more than $1 million, with most of its donations redirected to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMIC) as well as other organizations working on the issue along the riders’ route, including the North County Rape Crisis Center.

Click here for more information about Pedal the Pacific. Click here to make an online donation.