BIDDEFORD — Amanda Crawford-Staub, gliding gently on her bicycle, skidded to a stop in front of Biddeford’s North Dam Mill on Friday and removed a silver helmet from her sweat-soaked forehead. Moments later, three other riders, each wearing identical orange T-shirts, pulled to a stop behind her, catching their collective breath and surveying the early evening roiling of the nearby Saco River.

Assemble four bicyclists in identical uniforms, and chances are they’re riding for a reason. Sure enough, emblazoned on their orange shirts was the official logo for Climate Summer, a New England-wide program for people ages 18-25 that pursues an ambitious goal: Galvanizing communities in a collective fight against climate change.

After a week of training in Wilmot, N.H., and a rendezvous with other bike teams in Lowell, Mass., Crawford-Staub and her fellow riders, who comprise Team Maine, made the trek to Biddeford from the Bay State all by pedaling on two wheels. It was a show of defiance against the unnecessary burning of fossil fuels, and it’s an example they will continue to set as they make their way on a nine-week trek to communities across the state.

Biddeford and Saco were the first Maine communities on their journey; they set a course for the next destination, Portland, early Monday morning.

Crawford-Staub said she hopes that the team’s time in Biddeford will initiate a discussion on how to curb the emission of planet-warming greenhouse gases.

“Sometimes it just takes an initial spark to make things happen,” she said.

The riders of Climate Summer spent about a week living in the United Methodist Church in Saco, the first of many churches in which they’ll hang up their helmets as they traverse the state. To encourage and promote sustainability, each rider is living on just $5 a day, much of which goes toward the cheapest fresh and local food they can find.

Cyclist Trevor Culhane hopes the group’s actions encourage the kind of environmental consciousness necessary to combat a                  global problem.

“Rising temperatures have already led to heat wave deaths,” he said, “and countries like the Maldives will be underwater soon if we don’t take action.”

Those actions aren’t limited to just riding. The group is working with community leaders who have already made strides in promoting sustainability. Last week, Team Maine worked with Biddeford’s Community Bicycle Center, a nonprofit that teaches young people how to repair and maintain their own modes of clean and affordable transportation.

The group also had a table set up at this past weekend’s Art Walk event, and on Friday, staffed a booth at North Dam Mill where those interested could sign a petition asking the government to end subsidies for fossil fuels industries.

Rider Sara Mitsinikos sees the program as a personal responsibility.

“I always grew up recycling, turning off lights when I left the room, that kind of thing,” she said. “But my parents were just doing that to save money. There was so much more I could have been doing.”

Of particular concern to Mitsinikos ”“ and indeed, to the group at large ”“ are projections from most climate scientists who predict the planet will reach a “point of no return” if efforts to reverse the effects of climate change are unsuccessful.

“It has to be this generation,” said Mitsinikos. “Knowing about (the problem) is not the same as doing something about it. This, for me, is doing something about it.”

— Staff Writer Jeff Lagasse can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 319 or jlagasse@journaltribune.com.