SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. - Pioneer Valley Performing Arts student Charlotte Powell started a 300-mile bike ride on Wednesday from her school in South Hadley heading all the way to New York in hopes of encouraging more people to vote this election season.

What You Need To Know

  • Pioneer Valley Performing Arts student Charlotte Powell is biking 300 miles to encourage people to vote in November

  • Her bike ride will involve visiting multiple colleges in Massachusetts and New York where students are setting up voter registration sites

  • Powell will be attempting the long bike ride with both of her parents at her side

  • She said the bike ride is important because it showcases how difficult it was for people to vote in the past

Powell said the idea of the bike ride came to her in 2020. As a girl scout, she said it was one of her goals to plan the trip with some of her other girl scout members to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of women's right to vote.

"There were like 14 girls in my troop so it was originally going to be like a relay so like we would each ride like 15 miles or something," Powell said. "But then COVID happened and some girls left our troop so then it just became like a 'me' thing that I took it upon myself to do"​

Powell said her bike ride will involve visiting multiple colleges and universities in Massachusetts and New York where students are setting up voter registration sites on campus.

She will be attempting the long bike ride with both of her parents at her side and said she has been touched by the outpouring of support from her community.

"I had met a couple people who were like, 'I don't think you can do this,' and yet, here we are," Powell said. "Like, I have teachers at my school supporting me, and I have members of congress and state representatives coming and supporting me and that's just really cool, and my classmates are too."

​Powell said she's never attempted this long of a bike ride before but has been training since the summer in preparation.

She said the bike ride is important because it showcases how difficult it was for people to vote in the past as well as highlighting the challenges certain communities face when trying to vote today.

"The goal is to just get a lot more women voters out now and there are a lot of women registering to vote in this last year because of Roe v. Wade and all of the current situations going on," Powell said. "I think to just encourage more women to come out or just people in general who do not remember how it was to get a right a to vote."

Powell said her journey this week will make stops around western Massachusetts, including locations in both Hampshire and Berkshire County, before ending her trip in Seneca Falls, New York on Monday, where the first women's rights convention took place.