Champions Page 2

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

Photo courtesy Girls in Gear

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!

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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...

A section of the Allegheny River Trail near Emlenton, Pa. | Photo by Tom Bilcze

Teacher Provides a Lesson in Trail Building

Posted 09/25/14 by Laura Stark in Building Trails | Tagged with Champions, Connected Systems, Pennsylvania, Success Stories

Personable, kind, decisive: These traits made Jim Holden both a good teacher and a trail visionary. While a professor of computer science at Clarion University of Pennsylvania more than two decades ago, he recognized the importance of preserving disused rail corridors for public use.

Photo credit Tom Bilcze

Pennsylvania's Allegheny River Trail

Posted 09/16/14 by Laura Stark in America's Trails | Tagged with Champions, Pennsylvania, Trail Destinations, Trail of the Month, Wild and Wonderful

Unparalleled natural beauty? Check. Welcoming towns with friendly people? Check. Unique historical sites and a smooth, easy riding surface? Check, check. The 32-mile Allegheny River Trailin northwestern Pennsylvania seemingly has it all for a perfect getaway. And it's on the cusp of being even better; peak fall colors are expected to arrive in early to mid-October; the trail, lined with oaks, maples, elms and other tree varieties will be spectacular.

Photo CC Five Rivers MetroParks via Flickr

Don't Take the Road Toward Health This Summer. Take the Trail!

Posted 07/23/14 by Elissa Southward in Health and Wellness | Tagged with Champions, Encouraging Trail Use, State and Federal Programs, Tennessee

Walking is a great (and free!) way to get outdoors and get some exercise! Walking is associated with reductions in risk of dementia, type 2 diabetes, obesity, cancer (breast and colon in particular) and cardiovascular disease. Furthermore, being outdoors and around greenery can help with concentration and stress recovery, and sunlight on the skin leads to vitamin D production, which helps fight off cancer, osteoporosis and heart attacks.

Photos © Melissa Turley

Bike Advocacy: Why Teton County Commissioner Melissa Turley Is Truly Inspired

Posted 06/04/14 by Katie Harris in Taking Action | Tagged with Champions, Local Organizing, Wyoming

The trail world is filled with inspiring people. Some are folks that use and celebrate the pathways in their community on a daily basis. Others are champions, enacting change and making decisions that help the trails movement. And some, like Teton County, Wyo.’s Commissioner Melissa Turley, are both.

Photos © Bryan French, Annual Mayor's Ride in Duluth, MN

Duluth, Minn., Is Striving to Become North America's "Premiere Trail City

Posted 04/23/14 by Katie Harris in Building Trails, Success Stories | Tagged with Champions, Health and Active Living, Minnesota, Trail Communities

Mayor Don Ness, Duluth’s champion for trails, issued a challenge to the Duluth Trail Advisory Group—that “Duluth should be the premier trail city in North America”—and he is taking action to make that vision a reality. In 2011, the final draft of the Trails and Bikeways Master Plan was published, creating a blueprint for the future as the city moves forward.

Photos © Camrin Denegel

From Great Plains to Great Lakes: Experiencing Minnesota by Bike

Posted 04/04/14 by Katie Harris in America's Trails, Trail Use | Tagged with Minnesota, Wild and Wonderful, Young Champions

Last summer, I was fortunate enough to travel by bike across the country—from the coast of Washington State to the coast of Maine—with my best friend Camrin. The impetus for the trip was our desire to see the true fabric of America. And one of the absolute highlights of our trip was riding across the state of Minnesota.

Photo © Tracie Sanchez

Inspiring Ideas: Meet the Woman Who Kick-Started the Georgia Trail Summit

Posted 03/20/14 by Tracie Sanchez in Building Trails | Tagged with Georgia, Local Organizing, Young Champions

On April 11-12, 2014, Georgia’s first trail summit in 15 years will convene in Athens. Trail groups from throughout the state will gather to share knowledge and further projects, with a goal of establishing a first-class trail network in Georgia. In this guest blog, Tracie Sanchez, organizer of the Georgia Trail Summit, talks about her inspiration for the event and how she turned the idea into a reality.

Photo © Tom Bilcze

Cycling the Miles Away from My Heart: A Man’s Journey to Better Health

Posted 02/20/14 by Tom Bilcze in Health and Wellness | Tagged with Champions, Why Use Trails?

Eight years ago, I found myself in a dire situation—heading home from 17 days of hospitalization after suffering a heart attack and undergoing triple coronary bypass surgery. My cardiologist and primary care physician sounded alarms that I would find myself back in the emergency room if I continued my sedentary habits and did not address my almost 300-pound weight.