Ro Fischer of the Pittsburgh Mayor's office copied me on this response she created for a few of the Mayor's offices who have wanted to know more about this year's program and she said I can send it out to our more general list. Please do take the time to read it because if U do, you will see why the excitement for http://www.BikeRoute.com/NationalMayorsRide2004 continues to build:
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At 12:06 PM -0500 3/23/04, Fischer, Ro wrote:
From: Fischer, Ro
Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2004 12:05 PM
Subject: Hello from Pittsburgh Mayor's Office!
I absolutely recommend being a part of the Mayors' Relay Ride. This will be the third year Mayor Murphy has participated.......I think there were 15 cities (and Mayors) participating the first year...............last year the number of Mayors doubled and this year, offices are calling the NBG to be a part of it.
Trails have become such a big part of the whole "health" issue that this comes at the perfect time. Our three major TV stations covered this event (CBS, ABC and NBC) and our two newspapers. It was a win-win for both the Mayor and the NBG since the publicity was so positive. I'm sure you go through a lot of the same things we do with the media. They are always so ready to publicize the "bad" news.......it sells papers. But this was a really "good" human interest story and they all jumped on board.
Mayor Murphy is very committed to getting folks of all ages out on our trails. Our Senior Citizen Centers no longer go to the centers to eat and play bingo. He has equipped our centers with bicycles and it is very common to see 75-80 year old folks riding bikes on our trails (when the weather is good)......people who have not been on bikes for 50 years.
So we have the relay riders (coming from Washington, DC) who meet a large group of local riders at the beginning of one of our trails and they all ride to City Hall together. Our local bike clubs put the word out on their mailing lists and they join the "parade." We've had the Bike Police, the Mounted Police and a lead police car bring them into Downtown Pittsburgh at noon. We have found that lunch time is best for a large crowd since everyone is out on the streets at that time. When the Mayor is involved, it draws folks. It's a very short ceremony.....10 or 15 minutes......the Mayor welcomes the riders, says a few words about the necessity of exercise and more trails..........the riders say a few words about the NBG and the trails they came in on.....then the Mayor presents a proc to them in favor of a national trail that interconnects from city-to-city across the states....sends the new relay team off to the next city......and that's about it.
Last year we had lunch donated from a local restaurant for the riders (and they gave them shirts to wear to the next city)............it got tons of publicity.......it was a good news story for our Mayor.........and it made lots of folks aware of our trail system.
Don't hesitate to talk to (you Mayor) about it. If I can do anything to help you........just give a holler. Nice to hear from you.....ro
Rosemary Fischer
Office of the Mayor
Sr. Executive Assistant
516 City/County Building
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
412-255-2636