As I struggled up yet another hill on the seemingly endless bike ride down the Galloping Goose Trail, I considered for a moment (or several) scrapping the whole idea and turning back.

I was on my way, along with six other cyclists, to the second annual Green Drinks Celebration at Royal Roads University. I hadn’t biked for more than 30 minutes on flat surfaces at a leisurely pace for several years, if ever. My group mates had.

In fact, they are all dedicated bicycle commuters, or “conscious commuters” as is the term for those of us who eschew the conventional one-or-two people-to-a-car-no-matter-how-short-the-trip mentality, and opt for a more eco-friendly form of transportation.

What exactly was I sweating my way practically out to Sooke for, you might ask? Good question.

Green Drinks is an international model that brings together people of all ages and backgrounds essentially to talk to each other.

As Christopher Bowers, coordinator of Green Drinks Victoria says, Green Drinks “has been described as a container for people to go to where everyone has a common interest in the environment and sustainable societies.”

As I was soon to discover, it is also an event that attracts some of the most open and friendly people you will ever meet.

Upon entry, everyone is given a name tag on which they can write, in addition to their name, what they are looking for that evening, whether it be an answer to a burning question or a job.

Bowers says opportunities erupt – ask a question of a few people and you will find what you are looking for.

Green Drinks in Victoria began as a challenge to late founder Roger Colwill, by friend Guy Dauncey, prominent environmentalist, publisher of the Eco-News, and president of the B.C. Sustainable Energy Association (and also my bike-mate).

Colwill took up that challenge, and organized the most well-attended Green Drinks launch ever on the planet.

Talk of Colwill at the most recent Green Drinks event was abundant, speaking to the enormous impact he had on the green movement on the Island.

The event, which was not advertised or promoted except by word-of-mouth and on the website, attracted more than 300 people. They came in business suits and cocktail dresses, flip-flops and shorts, flowing hemp pants and bare feet.

Though regular meetings don’t feature speakers, this particular event welcomed several to the mic.

Jackie Kanyuk spoke of her first experience at Green Drinks.

Moving to Victoria in 2006 and knowing no one, Kanyuk attended a Green Drinks mixer. There, she met a group of like-minded individuals and one year later the Emerging Green Builders of Victoria was born – an organization whose mission is to provide students and young professionals with affordable and accessible resources for integration into the growing green building industry as active and qualified employees and professionals.

Stephen Grundy, chief information officer at Royal Roads, spoke of the moves to take the University off the grid—in fact to make it “grid-positive,” meaning to contribute more energy in the form of heat and power than it uses.

These days, the Green Drinks crew, which always welcomes newcomers, meets on the second Tuesday of every month at the Canoe Club, and hold annual special events at Royal Roads University. It also operates a website, which includes a social network called the Green Drinks Network of Possibilities, at www.greendrinksvictoria.ca.

As the sun began to set behind Hatley Castle, I started for home – this time tossing my bike on the bus (one step at a time) – pondering the evening, and thinking to myself that Green Drinks is about more than saving the environment – it’s about maintaining and strengthening our bonds to one another.

Which is fitting, because according to his many friends, Colwill believed that it’s not enough to be an activist and network – it’s how we are to one another that really counts.

Jessica Koch writes about living green every other Wednesday. She can be reach at jkoch@vicnews.com.