Lorin DeMuth – America Coast to Coast
Lorin DeMuth has been working with young people throughout high school and college and has been exploring all that the world has to offer for even longer! We can’t wait to have Lorin combine those two passions as she joins our team to lead our America Coast to Coast trip this summer. Lorin currently is at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, where she’ll begin her senior year this fall. Lorin’s aforementioned work with students spans many different areas of interest. She has organized community service events for high schoolers at an organic farm in Concord, Massachusetts (her hometown), worked as a camp counselor at a day camp in Concord, and spent last summer working at a children’s science museum in Acton, Massachusetts. She also works with students during her school year, tutoring at Walla Walla High School and serving as the site director for the United States Tennis Association’s local chapter, where she teaches aspirational tennis players the basics of the sport. Unsurprisingly, given her knack for leadership and teaching, Lorin was named the captain of the Varsity Tennis team at Whitman. Ever the adventurer, Lorin has driven across the country twice in the past two years, and spent this fall living in Indonesia for a semester abroad. On top of all of this, Lorin has even spent two weeks living in an igloo that she built – not many people can say that! While the southern heat may be the polar (pun intended) opposite of her igloo experience, and we can’t wait for Lorin to be in her element, adventuring and leading students across the United States!
Ezra Ward-Packard – America Coast to Coast
Ezra Ward-Packard’s love of cycling started early – not in life, but at 4:30 AM. The second of five children growing up in Wisconsin, Ezra woke up with his brother before sunrise to bike five miles to their grandmother’s house to watch Team USA play in the 2002 World Cup; Ezra remembers this as the moment he fell in love with cycling. However, Ezra wasn’t satisfied just watching high-achieving athletes on TV – instead, he decided to become one himself. After high school, Ezra spent three years as a semi-pro cyclist, racing 213 times in fifteen states and five countries, while seeing the world and living with teammates from seventeen different countries. Off his bike, Ezra is a hard-working student at Carleton College, where he majors in Cinema and Media Studies and minors in Educational Studies. Ezra is also an avid hiker – he has taken on three solo hiking and backpacking trips and checked off twelve national parks throughout South Dakota, Utah, Colorado, and Arkansas. Ezra loves working with kids – he has served as a residential counselor at a camp for young people with Type-1 Diabetes and has helped coach and counsel young cyclists at Team Novo Nordisk’s Talent Identification camp. This will be Ezra’s third summer leading for Apogee, and his second summer leading America Coast to Coast. That’s right, folks – Ezra made the trip from Charleston, South Carolina to San Diego, California with us last summer, and we can’t wait to have him do it all over again!
Brad Ravenelle – America Coast to Coast Support
Portland, Maine native Brad Ravenelle may be a first-year staff member, but he is no stranger to the Apogee family – Brad was a three-year Apogee student! Not only is Brad quite familiar with Apogee, he also knows the trip he’s supporting end to end, as he rode our America Coast to Coast trip as student back in 2013. Brad also joined us for our Vermont to Montreal trip in 2012 and for our Maine Coast College Essay program in 2015. A Mainer through-and-through, Brad now attends Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, where he is a rising junior. Brad was the captain for the Cross Country team and the Nordic Ski team in high school, while also competing on the Ultimate Frisbee team and singing a cappella! After high school, Brad zoomed in on Nordic Skiing as his main sport and took a gap year, spending time at Outdoor Sport Institute in Fort Kent, Maine, where he trained and competed full-time for a year. While at the Outdoor Sport Institute, Brad also served as a coach for many of the younger athletes. Brad’s responsibilities as a coach often stretched beyond just athletic advice and encouragement – he’d also mentor many of his older students, helping them with academics, navigating social dynamics, and figuring out how to balance skiing with the myriad of other things going on in their lives. We know Brad will take the same approach he did to coaching into his role as a support staffer, helping propel our America Coast to Coast riders on their cross-country journey!