Going the distance for Nahant nonprofit

NAHANT – A Nahant-based nonprofit that works to connect women working in solar energy will benefit from an upcoming bicycle ride intended to raise money and awareness for sustainability, active transportation, and environmental causes.The Climate Ride North East – a 320-mile trek from Boston to Bar Harbor, Maine – will take place Sept. 17-21.”What they are doing, connecting outdoors with raising money, is a really great model,” said Kristen Nicole, Women in Solar Energy founder and executive director. “It’s a really neat organization and a great way to raise money.”Nicole, who is not a regular bike rider, will be participating in Climate Ride North East alongside her supporters, she said.”Women and men are going out of their way to ride and raise money for us,” she said. “I thought, ?I just can’t sit and watch other people ride, I have to ride too.'”Participants choose to donate funds raised to charities of their choice. To become a beneficiary of the event, an organization needs to receive nominations from five different people. They are selected for their work on “the environment, conservation, clean energy, sustainability, climate education, or active transportation advocacy,” the organization said in a release.Women in Solar Energy (WISE) is an organization that connects women working in solar-energy-related fields with opportunities and other women. It was started when Nicole noticed that she was working in a field that was predominantly male, and it has since grown into a nationwide organization.”I’m a pretty outspoken woman, and I felt successful in my career,” Nicole said. “I looked around and saw that there weren’t a lot of other women around me. I thought, ?If I’m feeling like this, there must be women elsewhere that are feeling the same way.'””I decided to be that voice and put something together for people who maybe feel that way but don’t want to rock the boat,” she said.”We’re primarily focused on helping women navigate and network their way into a successful career,” she said. “It’s all about the opportunity to get into the industry and once you’re in, there’s a lot of room to move around.”There are a lot of different career options in the field, she said, including environmental, legal, engineering, designing, construction, accounting, marketing and entrepreneurial. The problem is that not enough women are pursuing a career in the field, she said.”There are a lot of jobs and a lot of opportunity in this sector, however, the ratio of women to men is under 20 percent,” Nicole said.Once an organization has received the necessary nominations, it is then placed on a list of beneficiaries for Climate Ride participants to choose from. Each rider is required to raise at least $2,800 by Sept. 11 to participate.”In 2014, through the collective fundraising of our 393 participants across the U.S., we granted $725,000 to our beneficiaries,” said Alyse LaVoie of Teak Media and Communications for Climate Ride. To date, Climate Ride has raised and contributed $2.28 million.WISE will use donations to organize more solid statistics, Nicole said.”We have a few statistics that we base our organization on,” she said. “We will develop a way to look at and track statistics year after year.”We’ll hire a market research firm to help us with our survey and make it more formalized,” she said. “It would create a baseline to say, ?Here’s where we are. Are more women getting hired? Are more women getting promoted?’ It would be a nationwide campaign. We’re going to start there.”There are currently 130 riders registered for Climate Ride North East and up to 300 can participate.To register or support a cyclist or team, go to climateride.org. Those wishing to sign up can enter discount code climateride2015 for $25 off their registration fee.