for college students by college students
PHOTO BY GRACE TURNER
Feb. 16, 2017/ 20 Shevat 5777
‘Bike Of Life’
OU radio show promotes
small acts of kindness.
Grace Turner } jewish@edu writer
A
radio show based on Jewish
teaching changes lives one
mission at a time, starting
with the Oakland University commu-
nity.
Junior journalism major Dovid
Roetter, 22, and freshman biology
major Ashley Roszko, 18, co-host
“Bike of Life,” a weekly show on
WXOU, Oakland’s student radio sta-
tion. The show encourages listeners
to perform small acts of kindness,
such as holding doors for others or
calling loved ones, to make the world
a better place. The show’s motto:
“One mission a week equals one
mountain gained.”
Each week’s message is emphasized
through music, poetry and stories,
and Roetter and Roszko bring in
classmates as guests.
Roetter became interested in
WXOU when he toured Oakland, and
he submitted a demo in November
2015. He was tired of the negativity
of everyday news and the vulgarity of
other radio shows he had heard. He
decided to create a different kind of
show.
The idea for “Bike of Life” was born
after Roetter rediscovered a poem
his sister wrote in November 2009,
shortly before she passed away, titled
“Riding the Bike of Life.”
Roetter said his sister, Pesha Leah
Roetter, always looked for ways to
“Bike of Life” co-hosts Ashley Ro szko and
Dovid Roetter in the WXOU studio
brighten someone’s day. She saved an
infant by buckling it into its car seat
minutes before a semi-truck skidded
into the car, killing her.
The show first aired in January
2016, close to the anniversary of
Pesha’s death. Roetter read his sister’s
poem during the pilot.
“I did my best,” Roetter said. “I gave
other people the bicycles to try to
make the world a better place.”
The show involves a lot of prepara-
tion. Roetter started looking for a co-
host after a successful semester. Enter
Roszko, who met Roetter in a Hebrew
language class at Oakland.
Roszko’s mother is a Reform Jew,
and Roszko had always been inter-
ested in deepening her faith. She saw
an opportunity through Roetter, who
Finding Inspiration
UM-D students learn together at the Holocaust Memorial Center.
Jordan Wohl } jewish@edu writer
didn’t have class that morning, but I woke
up early to catch a bus from the University
of Michigan-Dearborn to the Holocaust
Memorial Center in Farmington Hills with a
few of my fellow Wolverines on a trip spon-
sored by the Office of Student Engagement
and the Jewish Student Organization.
When we arrived, the other 21 University
of Michigan-Dearborn students in attendance
and I soon realized we had not come to the
HMC on an ordinary day. Today was Jan. 27,
International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
This day, marked by reflection, was highlight-
ed by a heartwarming ceremony to honor Dr.
Guy Stern, who received the French Knight of
the Legion of Honor medal from the French
government for his contributions to France
during World War II.
Before the ceremony, my fellow students
and I were taken on a tour of the museum by
I
University of Michigan-Dearborn students
visit the Holocaust Memorial Center in
Farmington Hills.
46
February 16 • 2017
jn
docent Michael Leibowitz. The tour was not
only well-crafted, but also a sobering and rel-
evant experience for us.
UM-D student Muhammad Ali said, “I
thought I had a decent understanding of what
the Holocaust was about, but a visit to the
Holocaust Memorial Center changed that. I
had always thought of it as something that
had just happened; I never took the time to
think about why something like that could
happen.”
As our world moves on into the future,
we should all keep the sobering memory of
the horrific events of the past fresh in our
minds. If there is anything that our trip to the
Holocaust Memorial Center taught me, it’s
that anything and everything that can divide
people into opposing groups is trivial. An “us
vs. them” mentality is foolish. One should
never dislike another human being because of