Exciting Updates & New Ways to Get Involved with Bike Easy! 🚴✨

Hello! It’s been a hectic beginning of  year getting settled in our new office in Mid-City and lining up some exciting events and opportunities for you to engage with our work.  Here are some highlights from the last few weeks:

Welcomed a new slate of Board Members have joined our Board!  

On January 1st, we welcomed Melanie Munsey, David Lee Simmons, Dana Trosclair, Lawrence Mackie Jr, Harry Barton, Adam Davies, Matt Hinson, and Greg Doolittle to our Board!  Read more about them here.

We also have a new slate of officers: Elyse Bejasa (Board President), Carlos Stich (Vice-President), AJ Allegra (Treasurer), and Greta Cappelmann (Secretary).  With this increased capacity, we hope to cover more ground for the Bike Community in 2025!

Celebrated outstanding supporters with our Annual Bike Easy Awards

We celebrated some of our outstanding supporters during our Annual Membership Party.  Join us in congratulating the following people and organizations that supported our work in 2024:

• Peter Duffy Bennett Policy Advocate Award – An individual or organization who’s done a lot for our policy and advocacy efforts – Presented to: Sam Buckley
• Volunteer of the Year Award – An individual who’s donated lots of quality time to Bike Easy – Presented to: Kylie Hewitt
• Community Partner Award – A funding and/or programming partner (generally an organization – Presented to: Greater New Orleans Foundation
• Bike Easy Award – The catchall, highest and best award for an individual or organization who’s been outstanding for biking – Presented to: Neal Morris

We are really grateful for all of them! 

If you recognize any of them, I invite you to thanking them for their lasting impact in making bicycling easy, safe, and fun for everyone in Greater New Orleans.

Wrapped up our work with Patrick Urbine as a our intern in January

Patrick Urbine has partnered with Bike Easy for years while he worked with Blue Bikes, and in January he worked with Bike Easy as a Development and Community Engagement Intern, helping us get  our grant work a bit more organized, evaluating our current community engagement, and bringing a fresh look at some of our processes to improve our work for the biking community.  He also helped out drafting our 2025 Purple Way Campaign launching later this week!  Check our social media for more details.

Already an individual member? We also offer Businesses an opportunity to show their support!  Sign up here

NEW Engagement Opportunities coming up:

• Youth Learn To Ride – Saturday, February 15th from 1 PM- 3 PM at the NORD Clubhouse on the Lafitte Greenway (1891 St. Louis Street). Do you have a child in your life that is ready to learn how to ride a bicycle? They’re in luck! Bike Easy is hosting a free Learn to Ride a bike workshop.  For more information and to register click here
• The Future of the West End – There are 2 public meetings coming up for community members to attend and provide valuable input of the future of the West End and the surrounding areas.  The first meeting will take place on Tuesday, February 18th in Jefferson Parish from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm at the East Bank Regional Library (4747 W Napoleon Ave, Metairie), and the second meeting will take place on Wednesday, February 19th in Orleans Parish from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm at Edward Hynes Charter School in Lakeview (990 Harrison Ave, New Orleans).
• St Tammany Parish Comprehensive Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan – There are 2 public meetings coming up for community members to learn more about this project and provide feedback.  The first meeting will take place on Tuesday, February 18th at 5:30 pm at St. Tammany Parish Koop Drive Complex (21454 Koop Dr, Mandeville), and the second meeting will take place on Thursday, February 20th at 5:30 pm at Tower’s Building (5th Floor Chamber) (520 Old Spanish Trail, Slidell).
• Be a WDSU Parade Tracker on your bike! We’re partnering with WDSU again this year – To learn more and to sign up, click here
• Join the 2025 Bike Easy Census Team – This year we are planning our first ever census with the goal to update our Membership Database, and also survey the current state of our local network!  If you are interested in joining this Committee, please reply this email!  We will launch this project early March!
• Save the Dates for our big events of 2025: 
  • Saturday, April 19th – The Not-So-Easy Bike Easy Scavenger Hunt!
  • Sunday, May 18th – Ride to Remember: Bike Safety
  • Wednesday, August 13th – BIKE Talks: Louisiana Bootlace Trail Network
  • Saturday, November 8th – Bicycle Second Line

We aim to continue representing y’all at as many meetings as we can, so keep sending us these leads!  And if you want to see our new space, reply to this email and let’s set a time for you to catch up and learn more about our plans for 2025!