Ride of Silence...

Special Reports

This page features reports from our board members, organizers and other organizations regarding other Ride of Silence (the actual Ride of Silence event reports from 2009 and beyond can be viewed here).  Submit your report to the webmaster for consideration for this page.


This past weekend in Lansing, Michigan, USA, at the Michigan Bicycle Summit....... I can only summon up one word: WOW!!

What a great event put on by League of Michigan Bicyclists Executive Director Rich Moeller, Associate Director John Lindenmayer, all the LMB Regional Directors and all the LMB volunteers. The support the League of Michigan Bicyclists continues to show the Ride of Silence is awesome, providing a booth for us to have Ride of Silence information available, being able to run the Ride of Silence PowerPoint Presentation throughout the day Saturday and a presenting a Workshop on the Ride itself.

For me, the highlight was Friday evening panel discussion with Andy Clarke, Executive Director of the League of American Bicyclists, Rich Moeller and Ride of Silence Founder Chris Phelan, with John Lindenmayer moderating. The proposed 15-20 minutes ran a little over a 1/2 hour, with the three of them covering all sorts of topics relating to cycling. (and a few others as well) They covered many serious aspects, as well as touching on the lighter side cycling. (the enc. photo from RofS Webmaster Tim Potter says it all!)

It was GREAT to meet so many Michigan Ride of Silence organizers, to put faces to names of folks I’ve been communicating with for a number of years. Meeting them either at the reception, the summit or the dinner we had afterwards with Chris was truly a highlight.

Joining us for a part or all of the Summit were:

Bob Krzewinski; Ypsilanti MI RofS Organizer
Chris Benson; Harbor Springs MI RofS Organizer
Christina Riddle; Manistique MI (LMB Director) RofS Organizer last year
Colleen Brown; Oakland Co. MI RofS Organizer
Dave Duffield; Westland MI (LMB Director) RofS Organizer
Fred Schaafsma; Traverse City MI RofS Organizer
Laura Harris; Holland MI RofS Organizer
Lenny Provencher; Haslett MI RofS Organizer
Mike Sheean, Boyne City MI (LMB Director) RofS Organizer
Tim Potter; East Lansing MI (RofS Webmaster) RofS Organizer
And some guy named “Chris”, who kept hogging the spotlight!! There’s always one in every crowd :-)

Seriously, it was truly an honor to finally meet Chris Phelan. (not to mention Andy Clarke!!)

We also had the pleasure of meeting and having dinner with;
Elizabeth Adamczyk; Chicago IL RofS Organizer
Gary Gilbert, Arlington Heights IL RofS Organizer

Elizabeth & Gary handed out a ton of their Ride of Silence buttons, and everyone was thrilled to have these. We may do the same this year in Grand Rapids MI.

Below is a link to the great photos Tim took, that tell the story of the Summit. John L. will soon have as many online as well, check the LMB website.  ( www.lmb.org )

http://picasaweb.google.com/flyingdutchman63/MichiganBicycleSummit2010#

I believe Chris will be posting to the RofS blog about this past weekend, keep an eye out for that.

With less then 2 months to go, I know many, most of you must be well into getting your Ride details firmed up. As of this morning we have 133 registered locations worldwide. For those who’ve not gotten their Ride listed, please do so as soon as possible, so there’s as much visibility for cyclists in your area, and to make life a whole lot easier for Tim come May.

Now that riding season is kicking into full gear, (for us in the northern hemisphere) please be safe out on the road.

Sincerely,
Mark

--
Mark Hagar
Ride of Silence, Board Member, Mentor, Club Communications
Ride of Silence, MI Director, 2005-2010 Grand Rapids MI USA Organizer

http://www.rideofsilence.org
"Silence Can Be Deafening"

Join the Ride of Silence Cause on Facebook:
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/331887?m=18ec8a44




  • Report from Gary Gilbert, Arlington Heights, IL, USA Organizer, regarding the Michigan Bike Summit and Ride of Silence organizer dinner meeting with Chris Phelan (April 2, 2010)