Bikes Belong Coalition provides $10K grant for route from Deep South to Lake Erie.
MISSOULA, Montana - The Adventure Cycling Association today announced
that they have been awarded a $10,000 grant from the Bikes Belong
Coalition to develop an innovative bike route tracing the historic
Underground Railroad, the pathway to freedom for thousands of African Americans.
Bikes Belong is a non-profit national coalition of bicycle suppliers and retailers
working together to put more people on bicycles more often. Adventure
Cycling Association is the nation's largest non-profit bicycling organization
that inspires people of all ages to travel by bicycle.
"This is a strong signal from the bike industry that it wants to significantly
increase the number and diversity of Americans who bicycle," said Jim
Sayer, executive director of Adventure Cycling Association. According
to Bikes Belong grants director Elizabeth Train, the UGRR was targeted for
funding because the project will help increase interest in bicycling while
filling the need for a long-distance cycling corridor in the east-central
region of the country. "This exciting project will map a route that slaves
followed to freedom in the mid-19th century from Alabama to Pennsylvania,"
Train said. "It will encourage cyclists of all ages and abilities to travel
through history by bike."
"Adventure Cycling does a great job of establishing, supporting, and promoting
long-distance bicycling routes," said Tim Blumenthal, executive director
of Bikes Belong. "This new Underground Railroad route project will have
a broad appeal, and we're delighted to help develop it."
Carla Majernik, director of Adventure Cycling's Routes and Mapping
Department, said that while the UGRR will provide a path through
history, the project breaks new ground in terms of the organization's route
projects. "For
the first time we are working with a non-traditional partner, the
Center for Minority Health at the University of Pittsburgh," Majernik
said. "This connection gives us the opportunity to reach out to populations
that traditionally have not been very involved in bicycle recreation
or travel."
Bikes Belong Coalition, based in Boulder, Colo., has funded close to 100
grant proposals totaling $848,460 and leveraging more than $431 million
dollars in federal, state, and private funding. The facilities projects
alone have helped finance more than 1,000 miles of bike paths and trails
and linked nearly 5,000 miles of trail facilities. For more information
about Bikes Belong Coalition, visit www.bikesbelong.org
Adventure Cycling, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit established in 1973,
is America's largest non-profit bicycling association. Headquartered
in Missoula, Mont., the association's mission is to inspire people of
all ages to travel by bicycle. Adventure Cycling's services include
bicycle-route development and mapping, periodical publishing (Adventure Cyclist magazine
and The Cyclists' Yellow Pages resource
directory), and a guided bicycle-touring program. For more information about
Adventure Cycling Association, call (406) 721-1776, toll-free (800) 755-2453,
or visit www.adventurecycling.org.
FOR INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Jim Sayer, Executive Director, Adventure Cycling Association, 800-755-2453
x201, jsayer@adventurecycling.org.
Elizabeth Train, Grants and Research Director, Bikes Belong Coalition,
303-449-4893, elizabeth@bikesbelong.org
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