Walking her bike down to the shore of Mission Bay, Grace Leventhal (12) dipped the front wheel into the water before rushing to celebrate with her friends. After six years of biking the Ride Across California (RAC) as a fifth-grader and youth support leader, she had completed her final ride, April 12. 

The RAC is a weeklong, 261-mile bike ride over spring break from Yuma, Arizona, to Mission Bay for fifth-graders and their parents. Riders start by dipping the back wheel of their bikes into the Colorado River, then finish with their front tire in Mission Bay. Every year, around 50 fifth-graders, from mainly Poway Unified schools, start training in September in preparation. 

Leventhal said the neighborhood kids she grew up withparticipated in the RAC and heard stories about how much they liked it, so she wanted to continue the tradition with her dad once she got to fifth grade. As a fifth-grader, she fell in love with the program and its uplifting community, eventually leading her to become a volunteer. Since then, Leventhal and her dad have been part of the RAC every year, with Leventhal serving as the youth support lead and her dad as the vice president of the program.

“I remember when I was a fifth-grader, it was a very special year, and I felt so bonded with all the fifth-graders I did it with,” Leventhal said. “I had my group of four or five other girls that we’d ride with every single day and I got close to them. We also had this boys-versus-girls challenge that I really liked, where it was [a competition of] who could do the most push-ups, who could hold the plank the longest, and who could bike the fastest. I remember making connections with people I’d never assumed I would make connections with. I thought that if these are going to be the people I’m volunteering with for so many years after this, I’d love to continue to do that and to make this experience as special for the incoming fifth-graders.”

Leventhal’s role as a volunteer involves waking up at 5 a.m. every morning to load everyone’s camping gear into a truck, filling containers of water, and preparing snacks. While riding, her team’s main purpose is to encourage and support the fifth-graders. 

“We’re supposed to bike every single mile that the fifth-graders bike and spread out,” Leventhal said. “As you’re passing all the fifth-graders, you’re supposed to be motivating them like, ‘Good job, you only have this many miles left, you’re doing great, this is such a hard day, but you’re making it through.’ [During breaks], they’re going to ask what’s next, so you’re supposed to know the route and be able to tell them, ‘We’re going through this territory. There could be headwinds, be prepared for that. That hill’s pretty hard, but it’s not as hard as the Escondido [practice] hill ride you did.’” 

The RAC riders’ training was put to the test on the fifth day of the ride at the most challenging hill, a six-mile climb in Julian: Banner Grade. Lenventhal said this hill is where she can really see the impact she and the youth support team have on the kids as they make it up the hill.

“Two years ago, we had a fifth-grader who had really been struggling,” she said. “He was also special needs, which we did not know until later, and he truly did not believe that he could do it. He was like, ‘I can’t do this. It’s going to be too hard.’ Then he made it up Julian, which is the big hill everyone’s preparing for. We had a support riding behind him the entire way up. So every time he started crying or saying ‘I can’t do this,’ [we said] ‘No, you can do this, you can do this. We’re right behind you. You can do it.’ He got to the top where all the families at home were cheering, and you could see the biggest smile across his face, and he goes, ‘I cannot believe I just did that. That’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I just did it, and I didn’t think I could do it.’ Seeing his reaction to that and him being able to do something that he thought he couldn’t do is pretty special.”

Leventhal said seeing how proud the fifth-graders are when they finish the RAC is one of her favorite parts, and it has encouraged her to keep volunteering every year. 

“If I’m being honest, I’m not a huge fan of the biking,” she said. “I’m more there because I like to see these fifth-graders do something they never thought they could do and see their reactions every time they’ve made it past a hill they thought was going to be so hard.”

In addition, Leventhal said that she’s built close relationships with the people who volunteer year after year.. 

“Some of them I even consider my older brother and sister on the RAC,” she said. “[They’re] people that I’ve done it with for all six years, and that’s really special to me. [From] the adult volunteers, the youth volunteers, the fifth-graders, the fifth-grade parents, the chase cars, and everyone, I feel like you build such a special connection with them because it’s really a once in a lifetime experience. These fifth-graders and these parents really savor every second of it because you’ll never experience anything like it ever again.”

The kids who serve on youth support go to different schools and they all have different interests, but Leventhal said that she was able to form even the most unlikely friendships. 

“They’re not the kind of people that I think that I would have been friends with if they did go to my school, and I don’t think we would have [been] automatically drawn to each other,” Leventhal said. “[But] when you’re put in a situation where you’re with people for seven days, you really get to know people on a different level and create connections that you never thought you would make. They’re the most special connections because they’re not the same kind of people that your entire friend group is, and they’re not people that you’re almost forced to see every day in school. You’re all choosing to be there. You’re all choosing to be with each other. I choose who I want to hang out with, and I would choose these people every year over and over again.”

Leventhal said that finishing this year’s RAC was bittersweet since it’s the last year she can volunteer, but she hopes her dad will continue to be the program’s vice president and help lead the next generation of riders.

“It’s super sad to me that I’m a senior now and I’m not going to do it again, so I’ve encouraged him to continue being a volunteer even after I’ve graduated because I think we should carry on the Leventhal legacy,” she said. “It’s really important to me and for the younger youth support who enjoy having him as their adult lead that he continues to do it even after I won’t be there.”

According to Leventhal, the RAC has taught her to step out of her comfort zone and branch out to meet new people. 

“I think what I’ve learned the most is that you can do hard things and you can do things that you never thought you’d be able to at any age,” Leventhal said. “Who would expect a fifth-grader to be able to bike across California? Not very many people, but they can. I’ve never been on a RAC where a fifth-grader did not complete it unless it was due to getting sick or injured. The second thing is that people need to look around them more because you can build connections where you never thought you could.”