Thanks to the WWRC Rally Day in Olympia Attendees
A huge THANK YOU is in order for those who attended the WWRC/Evergreen lobby day in Olympia last Thursday.
We can't express enough appreciation for your enthusiasm, your generous donation of time, and for making the drive to the Capitol for Evergreen. While this isn’t a budget session and we aren’t holding our own Legislative Day again until 2017, our continued presence in Olympia illustrates the growing demand for mountain biking recreation in Washington. Thank you for furthering that message!
We had a packed schedule with an impressive representation of statewide constituents. Because a full report would be too long, here are some of the highlights of the day:
Evergreen Board Member Peter Sherill and Advocacy Committee Member Larry Leveen took the reigns in guiding the Evergreen group through 25 meetings with representatives and/or their Legislative Assistants. Larry and Peter represented Evergreen for projects statewide, and voiced Evergreen's sincere appreciation for State support to date, which has allowed us to grow into the nation's largest single-state MTB nonprofit.
Jettrell and Andrea from Ellensburg dove right into the deep end of lobbying, tackling their first meeting of the day solo! It means so much for the representatives to have office visits from constituents in their own district--and the pair also received a commitment from their representative to attend an upcoming Evergreen meeting at IronHorse Brewing! Greg Parker & crew: Great things are on the horizon for Mountain biking in Kittitas!
Becky Wilson and Charles Stanger from Walla Walla met with representatives to explore options for a new mountain bike park in town, four season operations at Bluewood Ski Resort, and several other private development opportunities. Equally exciting was the wide support for a new Walla-Walla/Tricities chapter and the area’s exciting places to ride. While the Ellensburg chapter planned a chat over a beer with their reps, the Walla Walla crew explored bike & wine development opportunities with theirs.
Eric Brown from WMBA (Bellingham) added a number of hallway and representative meet-and-greets to his jam-packed schedule of appointments on behalf of Whatcom riders. With Eric's enthusiasm and passion, Whatcom riders can be sure they're getting the best possible support and advocacy for their trails.
(Thank you to the amazing Jessie Turner from Cascadia Law Group for facilitating this and helping Eric accomplish such a productive day!)
Brad Kelly and Eric Gray from Tricities had a great time visiting the capitol campus to inspire their representatives with ideas for new trails on BLM lands. Brad and Eric received project concept endorsements and offers for support letters from two of their representatives and literally ended their day with high fives in their representative's office!
For those of you who missed yesterday - please consider joining us for the Big Tent rally day on February 3rd! Please Register here and let us know if you plan on coming.
We’ll have riders from Seattle to Bellingham, and we would love for more to join us. Eastsiders: Escape the snow, join us, and bring your bike for a snow-free Capitol Forest ride!
* An additional THANK YOU Ethan Fetz and Adam Goch from WWRC, as well as Jessie Turner and Jay Manning from Cacade Law Group, for making this happen for us !
*Thanks to Becky Wilson from Walla Walla for the Capitol building photo and to Andrea and Jattrel for the other photos and their smiling faces!