Champions

Three Reasons 18-Year-Old Jan Gierlach Just Biked 3,300-Miles Across America

Posted 04/28/17 by Amy Kapp in America's Trails, Trail Use | Tagged with Best Of, California, Champions, Florida, Health Organizations, Young Champions

Jan Gierlach riding in Austin, Texas, near the midpoint of his 2017 Ride For 3 Reasons route between San Diego, California, and St. Augustine, Florida | Photo courtesy Jan Gierlach + Ride for 3 Reasons

Eighteen-year-old Jan Gierlach just spent three months bicycling 3,300 miles solo and raised more than $600,000 for three causes near and dear to his heart.

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Taylor on the chainless bicycle on which he won the world championship and broke world records in 1899. Uncredited photo, Taylor scrapbook. | Courtesy Major Taylor Association, Inc.

Honoring the Legacy of African-American Cycling Legend Major Taylor

Posted 02/16/17 by Danielle Taylor in Success Stories, Health and Wellness | Tagged with Biking, Champions, Encouraging Trail Use, History Happened Here, Illinois, Minnesota, Success Stories

Around the turn of the 20th century, bicycle racing dominated America’s sporting scene, with top cyclists commanding the same media attention that A-list Hollywood celebrities enjoy today. As with other mainstream sports in the U.S., professional bicycle racing was generally understood to be for white competitors only, but in the late 1890s, an African-American dynamo exploded onto the scene, racing at record-breaking speeds that couldn’t be ignored. Today, Marshall “Major” Taylor’s legacy lives on in cycling clubs across the U.S. as well as a popular rail-trail in Chicago, his final resting place.

David Burwell with his wife Irene and mother Barbara in 2002 | Photo courtesy Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

Rails-to-Trails Visionary and Conservancy Co-Founder David Burwell Passes Away

Posted 02/05/17 by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy in America's Trails | Tagged with Champions

This past week, the world lost a passionate conservationist and environmentalist. On the anniversary of Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s (RTC's) founding, rail-trail visionary and co-founder David Burwell passed away on Feb. 1, 2017, after a hard-fought battle with leukemia. His passion, tenacity and strong sense of public service were critical in taking RTC from vision to reality in the 1980s. His legacy exists in the more than 2,000 rail-trails he helped to inspire into completion—and in the federal legislation that protects and supports trail networks across the country.

Bobby Whittaker, president of Ferry County Rail Trail Partners, with 770-foot trestle over Curlew Lake in background | Photo by Rich Landers

Former R.E.M. Tour Manager Creates Rural Connections in Washington

Posted 11/07/16 by Amy Kapp in Success Stories, Building Trails | Tagged with Champions, Featured Magazine Articles, Private Fundraising, Rural Communities, Success Stories, Washington

It may be a no-brainer that Seattle-born Bobby Whittaker has always loved the outdoors, having been raised by the first American to summit Mt. Everest. It was the city’s music scene, however, that led him to a rewarding 25-year career, first with Sub Pop Records, and then as a manager and tour manager with iconic bands including Mudhoney and R.E.M. A decade ago, Whittaker read about a former rail line in rural Ferry County, Washington—a place he’d long been going to “slow down.” Now trail advocates in Ferry County are on their way to completing the 25-mile “rock n’ roll” rail-trail, which is changing people’s lives.

RTC Youth Sojourn participants cross the Ben Franklin Bridge between Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey, on the Circuit Trails network. | Photo by Blake Rubin

23 Youth Tackle 170-Mile Watershed Sojourn in Pennsylvania and New Jersey

Posted 09/01/16 by Anya Saretzky in Health and Wellness, Success Stories | Tagged with Circuit Trails, Community Events, Connected Systems, Ecology and Environment, Encouraging Trail Use, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Schools and Young People, Young Champions

As a culmination of our summer youth programming in the Greater Philadelphia Area, RTC brought 23 young people together this August for our second annual Youth Sojourn—a five-day bike ride over 170 miles of Circuit Trails in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Led by RTC Youth Engagement Coordinator Jolie Chylack and several Youth Leaders, the sojourn capped off a great summer of watershed health education programming.

RTC Youth Leaders Allen Williams, Paul Jewell and Jaymere Copeland at the 2016 Youth Bike Summit in St. Paul, Minnesota | Photo by RTC/Anya Saretzky

Impressions from the 2016 National Youth Bike Summit in Minnesota

Posted 06/14/16 by Anya Saretzky in Success Stories, Taking Action | Tagged with Biking, Ecology and Environment, Schools and Young People, Transportation and Health, Walkability and Bikeability, Young Champions

During Memorial Day weekend, RTC’s Youth Leaders in the Philadelphia/Camden area attended the Youth Bike Summit at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Jaymere Copeland, Paul Jewell and Allen Williams joined young people from across the country to learn and share ideas focused on using cycling as a tool to improve communities.

Illinois Prairie Path | Trail photo courtesy David Wilson | CC by 2.0 | Photo of Watts by Isabel Wasson

How May T. Watts Inspired the Illinois Prairie Path and U.S. Rail-Trail Movement

Posted 03/14/16 by Amy Kapp in Success Stories, Taking Action | Tagged with Celebrating 30 Years, Champions, Demand for Trails, History Happened Here, Illinois

May Theilgaard Watts was a writer, illustrator, naturalist, scientist and teacher. Her determination that Americans stay connected to their natural landscape in a time of increasing urbanization was the catalyst that led to the formation of the 61-mile Illinois Prairie Path, which today forms a 61-mile web through the Chicago Area.

“La bicycliste et caricature, 1897” by Montorgueil, Georges, 1857-1933 (creator) Somm, Henry, 1844-1907 (illustrator) – This image is available from the Brown University Library under the digital ID 1123259547400435. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Three Women Who Changed the Course of History On Bicycles

Posted 10/19/15 by Momentum Mag in Success Stories | Tagged with Biking, Champions

Susan B. Anthony, famed suffragette leader and women’s rights reformer, once said of the bicycle, “I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance.” Anthony described the image of a woman on a bicycle as “the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.”

2015 Youth Sojourn participants on the Circuit Trails network in Philadelphia | Photo courtesy Cy Maramangalam

Trails + Watersheds Get Philadelphia Youth Engaged on the Circuit Trails

Posted 09/24/15 by Katie Harris in Building Trails, Success Stories | Tagged with Circuit Trails, Ecology and Environment, Pennsylvania, Walkability and Bikeability, Young Champions

Pennsylvania and New Jersey residents are beginning to appreciate the importance of the regional connections made possible by the Circuit, a 750-mile in-progress trail network. Arguably no group understands that more than a handful of youth in Philadelphia, a dedicated crew of avid bicyclists, teammates and young minds called the Cadence Youth Cycling All-Stars.

Photo courtesy Girls in Gear

Bike-Savvy Middle Schoolers Help Reclaim—and Redesign—Columbus Streets

Posted 02/03/15 by Katie Harris in Success Stories, Taking Action | Tagged with Biking, Ohio, Schools and Young People, Young Champions

A formidable group of young women travels the streets of Columbus. Helmet clad, they roll through town on their bikes, searching for sidewalks and bike lanes and assessing street lighting. They know the names of the city council members who represent them, and you may find them behind a microphone at a town hall meeting advocating for the local bicycling movement. They also help cyclists themselves; they can fix a flat bike tire without giving it a second thought. They are an impressive group. Oh, and they’re in middle school!

Peter Mulvey | Photo by Jonathan Ryder

Musician-Bicyclist Peter Mulvey to Play for Trails on Jan. 25

Posted 01/20/15 by Amy Kapp in America's Trails | Tagged with Champions, Community Events, Wisconsin

Vetern singer-songwriter and passionate cyclist Peter Mulvey will be performing a 12-hour online concert on Jan. 25, 2015—and dedicating the 11th hour to Rails-to-Trails Conservancy! The concert will be streamed online live from the Café Carpe in Fort Atkinson, Wis., and we encourage you to tune in!

On the Walkway Over the Hudson: RTC staff members Orhan Belding and Katie Harris with Fred Schaeffer, Bill Steinhaus and a group of RTC Trailblazers. | Photo by Fred Schaeffer

RTC's Trailblazer Society: Experiencing the Impact of Trails

Posted 12/11/14 by Orhan Belding in Building Trails | Tagged with Champions, New York, RTC in Action, Success Stories

It’s a fall Sunday morning, and the sunlight is sifting through the clouds and hills above the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. My colleague and I are standing with several members of RTC’s TrailBlazer Society, listening to 2013 Rail-Trail Champion Fred Schaeffer give a rich history of the now famous Walkway Over the Hudson...