Friday July 9, 2004 was a lovely day to be outdoors in Pittsburgh, PA. As luck would have it, on this specific day riders from the Mayor’s Ride were arriving from Washington, DC. After riding for 1 week, covering about 325 miles, Pittsburgh was looking better and better. The riders, Troy and Nick were greeted by 25 fellow supporters at the Eliza Furnace Trailhead. The riders were escorted by the city police and the 25 supporters for 3 miles to Market Square where the Mayor’s Office and Venture Outdoors, an organization with the mission to get people outdoors, had set up a welcoming ceremony. The mayor of Pittsburgh, Tom Murphy was present at the event to honor the riders on their completion of the trip from D.C. Mayor Murphy discussed his familiarity with the trail, having been on it a month before. Throughout his tenure of being mayor he has fought continuously for the development and maintenance of trails in the Pittsburgh area and surrounding regions. After the ceremony, the 25 supporters of the ride were escorted back to the trail by Maggie Feinstein, Program Coordinator at Venture Outdoors. The riders and staff of Venture Outdoors were treated to lunch by the mayor’s office, at Primanti Brothers after the event concluded to reward their hard work and dedication to the Mayor’s Ride.
Audrey Swartz
Program Leader Intern
Venture Outdoors
Also:
What Audrey didn’t mention was that, although 25 bikes and two of Pittsburgh’s bike police led the way through the city streets at 12:30, there were bike clubs who went straight to the staging area to greet the riders. At one point there were easily 60 bikes in Market Square, when I stopped counting, plus the normal lunchtime crowd. The weather was glorious and the crowd very appreciative of the work Mayor Murphy has done with our trail system.
Rosemary Fischer
Office of the Mayor
Sr. Executive Assistant