As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds in our region, we have decided to close the Bicycle Coalition office starting the week of March 16th and have staff work remotely. We have also cancelled our March and April events and will reschedule them for later this Spring. Additionally, the start of the Bicycle Coalition Youth Cycling season is delayed.
We will still be actively working toward increasing the safety, health, sustainability, and bikeability of our region through our advocacy, and will be available by phone and email.
In this uncertain time, the Bicycle Coalition’s values are even more treasured and precious: embrace collaboration and collective action, pursue equity and practice empathy. We are interdependent and reliant on our community, which includes all of you, our members and supporters. These values underlie our work as a membership-based organization, and their truth is being shown on an unprecedented scale right now.
As Randy wrote up yesterday, being able to move around our region on a safe, connected network of trails and bike lanes makes the region a stronger, more resilient place to live, work and be connected to our communities. Our mission is more important than ever.
In the meantime, we encourage you to:
- Use your bike to get outside and clear your head. As you know, riding a bicycle can do wonders for your mental and physical health.
- Check in on friends and neighbors.
- Help the community around you by supporting your regular network of baristas, dog walkers, food delivery folks, etc. These are uncertain times with many demands on our energy and resources, and some of us are able to weather those demands more easily than others.
For those of you who support (or have supported in the past) the Bicycle Coalition, I appreciate and thank you for being part of our community. You can imagine that as head of a small organization heavily reliant on individual donors, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried that this pandemic has arrived at our doorstep during the last month of our fiscal year. So please, if you are able, use your resources for good, and invest in a membership that will contribute to the health of all of us.
Your advocate,
Sarah Clark Stuart
Executive Director