Virginia Sullivan Will Speak at the 2014 WCBC Banquet

The annual White Clay Bike Club banquet will be held on March 1st at the Delaware Association of Police, 2201 Lancaster Avenue, Wilmington, DE 19805. The banquet will begin at 5:30 PM with hors d’oeuvres. The potluck dinner will start at 6:00. Please bring your favorite main/side dish, salad, or desert to share. If you plan to attend, please RSVP (with the number of people in your group) to Nancy Bockrath by email (nancybockrath@yahoo.com) so we will know how many tables to set up to accommodate those who will attend.
RSVP by Feb. 15th.

Virginia (Ginny) Sullivan, the Director of Travel Initiatives at the Adventure Cycling Association, will be our featured speaker. The Adventure Cycling Association is headquartered in Missoula, Montana. It is the largest non-profit bicycle membership group in North America with over 46,000 members. Its mission is to inspire and empower people to travel by bicycle by providing services for cycle-tourists, publishing maps, campaigning for better cycling facilities and publishing Adventure Cyclist Magazine whose primary objective is to inspire incredible bicycle adventures.

The Adventure Cycling Association was founded in 1973 under the name of Bikecentennial by Dan and Lys Burden and Greg and June Siple. They planned a cross-country bicycle event to celebrate the bicentennial of the United States. More than 4,000 cyclists took part in the 1976 inaugural tours. Once the event was completed, the organization lived on and became Adventure Cycling, a non-profit member organization. Adventure Cycling’s mission is to inspire people of all ages to travel by bicycle for fun, fitness, and self-discovery. Its route network currently includes more than 38,000 miles of road and mountain bike routes.

Adventure Cycling provides a broad range of tours across North America (eighty!), creates the best bike travel maps on the continent, coordinates the creation of the U.S. Bicycle Route System, provides on-line “how-to” resources, sells quality bike travel gear, as well as publishing the Adventure Cyclist.

Ginny is a Montana native that rode horses more often than bicycles growing up. She joined the Adventure Cycling Association in 2005, Ginny coordinates the Association’s U.S. Bicycle Route System and participates in a number of other efforts directed to making bicycle travel more accessible and fun.
Bicycle tourism and travel popularity are increasing significantly. Recent studies and stories from across the nation indicate that bicycle travel of all kinds — short trips and long, luxury and cheap, big events and small tours — are enjoying the kind of popularity not seen since the 1970s, when bike touring experienced a major renaissance. The development of the long distance trails, regional bikeways, local bike networks and establishment of an official U.S. Bicycle Route System have kindled a growing interest in exploring on two wheels. This interest has ignited a long list of initiatives, including bicycle friendly business districts, Trail Town programs, more bicycle services on trains and transit.

As this tourism niche blossoms, a wide range of partnerships are emerging with municipal governments, biking networks, tourism bureaus, tour operators, campgrounds, the business community, accommodation providers, transportation officials, cycling and trail non-profits and more.

Ginny will share some of these stories and speak about the growing power and impact of bicycle tourism. Adventure Cycling Association is working on initiatives that make bicycle travel more accessible to all. Ginny will highlight recent accomplishments with Amtrak and the National Park Service and provide a peek inside tourism promotions that bring bicycle travel alive. In addition, you’ll learn about the remarkable organization she works for, the Adventure Cycling Association.