A Spectacular Bike the Drive

This Sunday's annual Bike the Drive was amazing.  I'd like to thank all of our wonderful volunteers and staff who worked so hard to make this day so special.  I'd also like to thank the weather, for it was perfect.  I know the headwind was tough for some.  We've set up a few things for people to share ideas and stories about the event:

1.  Become a member of the Active Transportation Alliance group through Facebook and post your photos and comments for all to see. 

2.  Post photos on Flickr and use the tag 2009 Bike the Drive.

3.  Post photos on both the Tribune and Sun Times web sites.  Just go to front page and the link should be on top.

4.  Make comments on the blog, right here.

Thank you also to the various City of Chicago departments who cooperated with us this weekend:  Mayor's Office of Special Events, Chicago Police Department, Office of Emergency Management and Communications, Chicago Department of Transportation, Chicago Park District, and Streets and Sanitation.  Thanks to all of our sponsors including a great three year run with Bank of America as title sponsor.  This year's event marks the end of our contract and we're on the lookout for a family-friendly company to come in for 2010 and beyond.

Finally, I want to call out the following folks who busted their tucheses over the past six months to make this event go as smoothly as possible:

Christine Schwartzkopff — Christine is our Director of Events and runs the logistics, from port-a-potties to road closures, it's all her doing.

Rebekah Broussard — Rebekah is our Sponsorship Director and she raises money, donations and food for riders helping us keep the costs down and the ride as affordable as we can.

Ethan Spotts — As Director of Marketing he not only has to sell the event to the public, but he helps build the feel and experience of the event to ensure its family friendly and fun.  Margo O'Hara, our Communications Director, works with Ethan to produce press releases, handle day of communications, and media relations.  Thanks also to Akane Tsuruta for writing, layout, and additional communications assistance. 

Jody Orlovick — As Volunteer Coordinator, Jody needs to both find people to volunteer, train them and then place them in positions.  Some how she found a way to do all of that and still go out and dance for at least one song.

Chris Ege & Mitch Brinker — Chris manages all of our technology and for Bike the Drive that includes designing the website and working with Mitch, our graphic designer, on all publications and materials. 

Daaron Kimmel — Daaron is the newest in our Events Team and runs registration from beginning to end.  Its a bit of a thankless job, but Daaron showed great tact with customer service and day-to-day preparation to ensure that the event was as smooth as possible.  Day of registration was so huge this year, we ran out of rider numbers.  We appologize for that to those who experiences this problem, but we've never had so many day of registrants.  We'll be more prepared next year (if we don't well out!).

Our interns, Molly Hackney and Taylor Ekena, added great work.

Thank you everyone.