Cyclists Reach LA Area

LOS ANGELES – A group of inner city teenagers who left Berkeley High School last week will be joined by Los Angeles youths on Thursday as they continue their 600-mile bicycle trek down the California coast to focus attention on the problem of youth violence.

The 17 Berkeley High School students set out from Berkeley on Aug. 6 and on Monday are scheduled to arrive at their final destination, Santana High School in Santee, the scene of a shooting in March that left two students dead. The Berkeley riders, some of whom had never been out of the San Francisco Bay Area until this trip, are showing support for the students at Santana High School and other young people who have suffered violence in their communities.

In a show of their own support for the effort, teenagers from the Los Angeles Police Department Explorer Program will join the Berkeley cyclists at Temescal Canyon and Pacific Coast Highway at 11 a.m. on Thursday. They will proceed on bike trails along the beach and the Pacific Coast Highway and plan to reach Long Beach by day’s end.

The ride is being sponsored by the Berkeley Police Activities League, the East Bay Asian Youth Center and the California Department of Parks and Recreation, which has been providing camps at state parks along the way.