Daniel Dowers supports affordable housing with Bike & Build trip

PATEROS – Daniel Dowers, a 2021 graduate of Pateros High School, is a young man in a hurry in more ways than one. The 19-year-old recently signed on to participate in the 2022 Drift West Bike and Build that combines a demanding 850-plus mile, month-long fundraising bike ride with a week’s worth of hands-on construction at affordable housing projects along the way.

The mix of a road trip from Portland, Oregon, to Bellingham with home site construction along the way is an interesting twist to community service.

As Dowers describes the venture: “It is a program focused on helping affordable housing challenges in our country and includes eight days of actual construction on affordable housing projects.”

Dowers knows the housing need firsthand after a near-decade of local wildfire destruction.

“Affordable housing and home shortages have hit close to home, literally,” said Dowers.  “In 2014, 2015 and 2020 our area lost hundreds of homes to wildfire disasters. My grandmother lost her home of 40 years, as well as several rental properties, in the Carlton Complex Firestorm of 2014.”

Dowers said both his mother and older brother served as volunteer firefighters at that time and everyone pitched in to help neighbors.

“Because of these events, my parents and I have been very active in helping rebuild homes and supporting survivors in the area,” Dowers said.

Dowers completed his requisite 500 miles of pre-trip training, and affordable housing curriculum to qualify for the rigorous program. He joined the Wenatchee Velo Cycling Club for group rides every Saturday in July. That preparation also required raising $3,000 before embarking on the trip Saturday, August 6. As of this writing Dowers has reached that goal and then some with the help of tax-deductible donations. More information and donor link are available online at bikeandbuilddonordrive.com,

“We are typically scheduled to ride for three days (50-80 miles each day) and then have a build day,” explained Dowers. “The route will take us through Aberdeen, the Olympic Peninsula, Whidbey and San Juan Islands, Olympia, Seattle and so on to Bellingham.”

The trip will conclude on August 30.

According to its website, bikeandbuild.org the non-profit organizes a variety of on and off the bike experiences to give young adults opportunities to become engaged in the affordable housing cause. Bike & Build has been pedaling for affordable housing since 2003.