Two wheels and one mission: Jewish lawyer’s bike trips empower kids to lead
“Some of these kids have never been outside Pittsburgh or their own neighborhoods. We open their eyes to things they didn’t know existed.”
Pittsburgh attorney Mark Rubenstein has turned his passion for cycling into a life-changing path for hundreds of low-income, inner city kids.
Since founding the nonprofit Pittsburgh Youth Leadership in 2006, Rubenstein, 71, of Swisshelm Park, has taken groups of boys and girls as young as 13 adventuring in every state except Hawaii, exposing them to opportunities they couldn’t have imagined.
“Some of these kids have never been outside Pittsburgh or their own neighborhoods,” Rubenstein said. “We open their eyes to things they didn’t know existed.”
The idea for PYL evolved from a cycling trip across Canada that Rubenstein and his wife, Claudia, took with their son, Jake, when he was 12.
“I saw how it gave him a sense of accomplishment, focus and determination,” Rubenstein recalled. “He learned a lot about life and himself and had rich experiences. Traveling on a bike thousands of miles gives you a very different way of seeing things than when you’re riding in a car at 70 miles an hour.”
It occurred to Rubenstein, who practices criminal defense law, that similar forays could have an even more profound impact on at-risk youths, and so he launched PYL with an 800-mile ride to Acadia National Park in Maine.
Since then, Rubenstein and his staff have logged over 558,000 collective miles with more than 250 participants.
They average a dozen all-expense paid trips a year to various parts of the country, from Montana’s snowcapped peaks to the New Hampshire shore, thanks to support from 20 foundations and more than 80 individual donors.
Participants have pedaled through 25 national parks and the Alaska wilderness. They have gone coast to coast twice. Some rides, like one on Alabama’s Selma to Montgomery Historic Trail, are especially memorable, Rubenstein said.
“We watched the movie ‘Selma’ beforehand so the kids would understand Bloody Sunday and the history of the place, and then we rode across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to the steps of the state capitol where Martin Luther King gave one of his most famous speeches.
“The sun was setting and I got the idea of bringing his speech up on my phone. We took turns reading it,” Rubenstein recalled. “Watching the kids’ faces was very moving for me.”
Another journey, which included a stop in Niagara Falls, reinforced how little some kids know about the natural world, Rubenstein said. “When we got there they were just stunned. One kid from Garfield came up to me and said, ‘This is so cool! Who made this?’ like it was something from Disney.”
Three years ago, PYL entered a partnership with the prestigious National Outdoor Leadership School, which awards 10 PYL kids a year a full $5,000 scholarship to its 16-day course in the Wind River Range in Wyoming.
“We cycle there and the kids do intensive high-mountain backpacking. We choose kids who have the physical skills and determination,” Rubenstein said. “We’re all about leadership.”
Rubenstein is quick to point out that bikes are just the vehicle for PYL’s deeper mission.
“We get lots of attention for our cycling because we go thousands of miles through crazy stuff, but we’re not really about that at all,” he said. “We’re about mentoring and guiding kids on a better path in life through the lessons and relationships they develop on trips and during the year.”
“About 99% of our kids have graduated high school and 35 or 40 have been the first in their families to go to college,” he said. “We help them see the potential in doing something better than maybe getting a job down the street at McDonald’s.”
Although PYL began as a family-run venture, it has grown to include paid staff recruited from the ranks of former participants.
“There’s kind of a competition to become a staff member. That’s a goal for a lot of kids and one of the best things we have going,” Rubenstein said. “They have a pretty profound influence on kids who think they can never make it in the world because they are black and poor.”
Tae Ferris, 22, of Mt. Washington graduated to a staff position because he wanted to give back.
“The program helped me grow my perspective on the world, and understand my capabilities,” said Ferris, who took his first PYL trip when he was 15. “A lot of the kids have responsibilities on trips. They learn how not to panic during problem solving, how to be in a genuine community and work as a group to reach a goal.”
The program has been transformative for many PYL participants, like Hassan Davis, whom Rubenstein met when Davis was in eighth grade.
“I said ‘What are you going to be when you grow up?’ and he said ‘I’m going to be in the Air Force,’” Rubenstein recalled. “Although he stuck with the program he did not score high enough on his SAT equivalent to make it into the military.”
“So I told him, ‘We’re going to cheat like rich people cheat,’ and I hired a tutor. Hassan did all the work and I was the second person he called, after his mother, when he got accepted. The day he finished basic training he came to my house with an Air Force hoodie.”
Davis is now part of the detail that travels on Air Force One, Rubenstein said. “He was with Biden when he flew to Israel, and was with the president when he hugged Netanyahu. It wouldn’t have happened without PYL.”
Rubenstein fills a void for many of the kids whose fathers are not present in their lives.
“On the forms the kids fill out, where the father’s info should be, 50% of the time it’s just a line,” Rubenstein said. “Usually single mothers are the ones giving consent and it’s pretty easy to secure — they’re so happy their kids are going to be in a program that is doing some good.”
The contract includes a zero-tolerance clause stipulating that any infraction of the rules will result in being sent home by Greyhound bus.
“We’ve had to do it a few times, when a kid has brought weed or a weapon or gotten into a fight,” Rubenstein said. “These are common things for them in their everyday life, but we don’t allow them on our trips.”
About 90% of PYL participants stay with the program.
The vast majority are Black, with many coming from The Neighborhood Academy in Garfield, and Pittsburgh Classical Academy in the West End, where cycling is part of the curriculum.
College-bound Neighborhood Academy senior Nathaniel Shelton, 18, has cycled with PYL for the past four years, including to North Carolina’s Outer Banks, and from Cumberland, Maryland, to Washington, D.C., encountering “both high and low points” along the way.
“I’ve had some of the greatest times of my life with friends, and I’ve overcome adversities,” said Shelton, of Monroeville. “When I face a difficulty, I can look back at what I have accomplished on the trips.”
Although not particularly athletic when he joined PYL at 14, Shelton shed 30 pounds during his first year with the program while gaining self-discipline and confidence. He now competes on his school’s wrestling team.
PYL participants needn’t go far to broaden their world since local outings have benefits, too.
“When the Pittsburgh cycling community has group rides we bring a group,” said Rubenstein. “These are fairly affluent white people and when we show up with a bunch of Black kids they are very welcoming. They love our kids.”
Rubenstein said he takes no salary and, even after 19 years, PYL remains a labor of love. He has formed long-term bonds with many participants, some of whom are now in their 30s.
He has scaled back his law practice and performs most of his legal work gratis. About 90% of the money raised for PYL goes directly to programs and office expenses, he said.
“Claudia is an attorney, and we live simply. We are two old hippies who don’t need to make a lot of money so one of us left the money-making world.”
“I feel blessed with a lot of great kids and they have flourished. It’s a wonderful experience…good for the soul.” PJC
Deborah Weisberg is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.
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