MA Athletes Organize Black Lives Matter Art To Be Seen From Space

WINCHESTER, MA — A group of Massachusetts athletes are organizing a unique way to support the Black Lives Matter movement that, if successful, could be seen from space.

The group which calls the project "Wheels of Change" and is planning to use a GPS fitness app and a heat map to spell out "Black Lives Matter" on the coastline from New York To Maine this weekend. The volunteer group consists of cyclists, runners, and everyday folk interested in supporting social justice reform with visibility and was started by a cycling group in Winchester called Winchester Rippers.

The idea for the project came when one of the Rippers asked the other group members to make an anti-racist statement following the death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police officers in late May. A number of members responded. A key catalyst was the response of one member of the Rippers who shared a personal reflection on riding while black. The group said it helped others understand and prompted a core group of members to create the project.

Using STRAVA, a global leader in GPS-enabled fitness apps, and a "back-end" which the members built themselves, they are attempting to spell the phrase across 1,500 miles. The heat map will allow the sign to be seen, virtually, from space.

The group is welcoming to participants of all kinds, from children on tricycles to walkers to wheelchairs. Anyone can walk a block or ride hundreds of miles. Some are committing to traverse the whole 1500 mile message — cyclists with a smart trainer can ride it virtually from anywhere.

All participants are pledging to take action to help normalize anti-racism.

“This unique, gigantic, athlete-powered, crowd-sourced ART, where we are combining potentially thousands of individual rides into one ‘heat’ map, to our knowledge, has never been done before. It is more expansive than anything the Strava team has seen. It is not only a novel idea in the world of Geo Art, but required the construction of an entirely new application. This is all possible because a team came together around a powerful idea and were passionate about accomplishing something unreasonably difficult in a timeframe that would impact current events,” said the organizers of Wheels of Change.

Registration is free and available to anyone with a cell phone anywhere in the world. Ways for distant supporters to participate are offered online.

You can reach Samantha Mercado at samantha.mercado@patch.com