For the past eight months, our staff has crammed together into a small portion of our beloved old church building while local workers have completely revamped and expanded the west wing of the structure. Now we have ample room not only for Adventure Cycling's 32 current staff but also at least 12-15 more new staff in coming years, to help provide our members with the best in bike-travel services, from maps to tours to publications and online resources.
This past week, we moved staff into their new spaces and the construction crew is finishing the exterior work.
On Friday, July 6, we will celebrate this expansion -- so emblematic of the growth in interest in bike touring -- with a grand street party right outside the building. From 4:00 to 8:00 pm, during Missoula's "First Friday" monthly art walk celebration, we'll have live music, free ice cream (naturally, since we give away more than 1,000 free ice creams to visiting cyclists every riding season), food and drink from local merchants, tours of the new headquarters, raffles, and more. We'll be joined by our neighbor, the Missoula Art Museum, which will be exhibiting wonderful Montana art, and a popular local radio station, The Trail 103.3, which plans to broadcast live at our building all day long.
Not only will we be celebrating a new physical structure but also the huge community that has made the expansion -- and really all of our work for bicycle travel -- possible. Amazingly, we will be able to cover all the expenses of this project through the generous support of our many Life Members (now more than 1,700) and hundreds of donors, who have stepped up over the last few months to contribute support for construction. (And by the way, if you haven't donated yet -- you still can and your support is still needed as we wrap up more details.)
I'm so excited that many of our greatest supporters will be coming for the July 6 party and to re-visit the "mecca" of North American bicycle travel, chief among them Charlie Pace. Charlie is a titan of bike touring. He hails from Columbus, Ohio, was a long-serving board member, and was our very first Life Member. He has toured all over North America but is perhaps best known as the long-time coordinator of the famous Tour of the Scioto River Valley, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary.
If you are anywhere near Western Montana on July 6, please come celebrate with me, Charlie, and hundreds of other happy people -- it will be a great day to bask in sunshine, savor an ice cream, and revel in the member-powered growth of Adventure Cycling Association.
P.S. -- If you're a Facebook fan, you can RSVP for the party, or just feel free to drop by on July 6!
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JIM SAYER is the executive director of Adventure Cycling Association.
Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/06/growing-and-celebrating.html
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