2015! What a Year
With 2015 coming to a close we want to thank each one of you who has made this year the best ever for the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition and local cycling. A Bike Capital is not built in a single day nor year but with the help of our members, supporters, and volunteers, we continue to build Harrisonburg and Rockingham County as the Bike Capital of Virginia.
In this season of giving, generosity, and family, please consider helping your bicycle family, the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition with a year-end gift. You can help us continue to build our region into the best, safest, and welcoming bicycling community we can imagine.
With your help, The Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition can continue to grow and encourage healthy, connected communities with more kids, families, and all-ages riding bicycles for fun and transportation. The more our membership continues to grow, the more we can improve education, infrastructure, and connectivity.
What did we Accomplish in 2015? funny you should ask
- Nearly 700 members! We surpassed all of our prior membership numbers by more than 200! Please join or renew today to help us continue growing our voice and increase our impact.
- Finished the Power Line Trail at Hillandale Park- The first “jump” trail in the city of Harrisonburg.
- Helped Safe Routes to School Program by purchasing two storage sheds for the city schools where they can store their fleet of bicycles to be used for bike rodeos, physical education, and more. “100 Bikes for Area Schools“
- Measuring the economic impact of bicycles through our region’s first ever Bicycle Economic Impact Survey. Bikes mean business and we want everyone to know just how much business this is in the Central Shenandoah Valley.
- Built a parking lot At the bottom of the Wolf Ridge Trail. Think about future Narrowback and Tillman Trail connections.”Wolf Parking Lot“
- Largest Shenandoah Mountain Bike Festival of the past 20 years. We were excited to build a new trail off of Narrowback’s “Festival” trail and raise funds for our work in the National Forest. 2015 Shenandoah Mountain Bike Festival
- Fourth Annual Bike-Walk Summit held on JMU’s campus and attended by City Council, County Supervisors, City/County Staff, the summit lets us highlight the past year as well as create a collective vision for the future.
- Helped Foster the growth of our High School Mountain Bike Team Virginia is now part of a national High School Mountain Bike Race League and our Shen-Rock team is vibrant, enthusiastic, and a fun-loving group of kids. #morekidsonbikes Learn more about the team.
- Another new trail at Massanutten, this one connects up to Leighton’s overlook and into the “Laird’s Nose” trail build from last year. This involved over 500 hours of volunteer trail work on our famous Thursday trail work sessions.
- Not to mention all of the other wonderful events, rides, and activities that continue throughout the year. Some of these include: The Shenandoah Valley Century, Beer garden at the Alpine Loop Gran Fondo, Redwing Festival Rides, May Bike Month!,
- We printed these great T-shirts featuring Harrisonburg “The Bike Capital” You can now pick one up at any of your local bike shops or purchase online. More details on purchasing T-Shirts
Our bicycle community can come together and successfully grow the number of people on bikes, places to ride, —everyone should have the freedom to choose if they want to bike or walk in their community.
We rely on your support to help us grow our voice to promote and encourage local cycling
Those public comment meetings can’t be missed. Just ask Ben Wyse and Tom Benevento on their way to the City of Harrisnonburg Bike and Pedestrian public comment meeting.
Building the new Festival Connection on the East Side of Narrowback Mountain during the 2015 Shenandoah Mountain Bike Festival
Harrisonburg’s first greenway, the Bluestone Trail will be extended onto James Madison University’s Campus. A lot of great work behind the scenes has been going on to make this a reality. Big thanks to our many volunteers.
Yes! We have a High School/Middle School Mountain Bike Team. The Shen Rock team is committed to getting #morekidsonbikes
Building the new Power line Jump Trail at Hillandale Park
Get ready for more fun new trails to ride in 2016!