From the President

What You Can do For Community Ties!

Hello Delaware County Peeps of the Trail:

I hope this note finds you well. Other than the same six people I
keep seeing at every meeting, I have no idea how the rest of you are.
And unfortunately in too many cases, I have no idea who the rest of
you are.

I'm writing today to talk about Community Ties. This event was
founded by the five Rotary clubs of Delaware County about 5 years ago
with the intention of raising funds for DCFT and for the Ohio-to-Erie
trail. In addition to bike rides of varying length, the event has
include runs, walks and rollerblades. It has always raised between "a
few" and "several" thousand dollars for trail development in the
county, and, ostensibly "tied" the communities in our county together
through bike routes and Rotary clubs.

This year the event (July 28) was turned over to DCFT. Rotary
volunteers are still helping us staff our food stops and such, but
the planning, organization and conduct of the event is on our
shoulders. We have limited the event to three Bike Rides: a 72-mile
ride, a 40 mile ride and an 8-mile family ride. We are staging the
event in the Home Depot parking lot, which allows us to send riders
north on the entire Genoa Trail.

If you are among the non-six people I always see at meetings DCFT
people receiving this email, please consider helping us out. We
absolutely need all the help and assistance we can possibly garner
this year to not only pull this event off, but somehow raise funds to
boot for the effort.

To date, we have about 15 riders preregistered and 4 confirmed
sponsors, with another 3 tentative commitments for sponsorship.
Ideally, the entry fees we collect cover the cost of running the
event, while the sponsorship dollars represent funds raised for the
organization.

Here are the many, many ways in which we need your help:

1) SPONSORS! This is the single, most important activity right now.
On the DCFT website (dcft.org, if you haven't visited lately, and
judging from our traffic counter, you haven't), you can download and
print the sponsorship form, which lays out the levels of sponsorships
available and the benefits associated with each level. Can you take
this to a local business? A family business? Your dentist? Your
doctor? Your employer? Your chiropractor or your yoga teacher? Anyone
interested in supporting a decent quality of life and public health
in Delaware County?

We have until July 20 to secure sponsors. That's the last possible
day for us to get the sponsor-logo covered back of the shirt to the t-
shirt shop in time to get the shirts for the ride (and thanks to
Trish Bishop for coordinating the shirts, which are gonna look sweet
this year). I've learned that I can't be shy about asking for
sponsorships, and that I am getting rejections to acceptance at about
a 12:1 ratio right now. I keep at it, every day at lunch. I don't
want to be the group President who oversaw a money-losing fundraiser.

2) Help PROMOTE THE RIDE! With any cyclists, coworkers or families
you know! Send them emails with links to our online registration,
which is here: http://active. com/event_ detail.cfm? event_id= 1453229

Or email them the registration PDF, which can also be found on our
website (dcft.org). If you can distribute some posters or post them
in visible public places, the drop me an email and I will get the
posters to you.

And here's a recent add-on boon for the family ride: There will be
eight letterboxes hidden on the trail. Families receive a sheet of
clues and, if they wish, can hunt the boxes on their ride, finding
within each a unique,hand- carved stamp and information about the
trail, or the plants and buildings along the trail, even some Genoa
Township history. (I'm a semi-active Letterboxer myself, and
developed this idea last weekend, when I asked myself what would make
for a cool bike ride for me and my kids.). There's also a chocolate
chip cookie stop at the halfway point for families.

3) FOOD! Holy moley, do we need help here. In the past, the esteemed
Larry Jenkins covered us food-wise, with his many grills, tents,
tables, chairs, condiments and his unmatched enthusiasm. Larry is not
available this year, leaving a gaping hole for us to fill. Board
member Nancy Hood (Hi Nancy!) is running point on getting food
donations so that riders get a decent lunch for the registration
dollar. As of now, we have a lot of bagels. You can email Nancy
directly at nancyandandy@ earthlink. net and coordinate your
assistance. Know a local restauranteur? Run a deli? We need your cold
cuts somethin' fierce, man. Don't leave us hangin'.

4) COOKIES! Our rest stops are highlighted by home-baked chocolate
chip cookies. Mary Kerr (mkerr@otterbein. edu) is spearheading this
effort for us (and she's not even in town the day of the event).
She's got a great plan that somehow involves Jim Flaherty's freezer
if you want to make your cookies early.

5) YOU! On the day of the ride, we need people to set up and help run
registration, staff the food stops, and clean everything up. We're
usually done by 1 or 2 p.m. if that helps.

6) YOUR TABLES, CHAIRS AND CANOPY TENTS! Yeah, you heard me. While
our venue this year is convenient for the riders, we have to bring in
everything we need for the staging area, including (and I think this
is critical) canopy tents (EZ ups, etc) so we can create a shaded
registration and eating area for the riders to cool down in after
their ride. Are you a tailgater with some of this stuff? Can you lend
it to the cause? How about tables and chairs? Got any of those? Get
in touch with me (614.901.8047 or pbrown@life- ware.com) so we can
work something out, OK?

If you have read this far, I thank you for your time and attention
today, and am very hopeful you will seriously consider helping us out
with this event. My wife tells me that asking for help is one of my
biggest challenges, and she's usually right about these things. I'm
actually on my knees as I type this (I swear), begging for your help,
begging you to join the super six in raising some monies and getting
trails built in the county.

Thank you again,

Pete Brown, President

Looking forward to 2007

I wanted to take a minute to write you all with some of the plans for 2007 that we finalized at our planning meeting this past February. We have a lot going on, and I'm hoping to see you all take part. Here are some quick updates:

Clean Ohio Fund Grant Implementation
Andrew Brenner is running point on the implementation of the Clean Ohio Fund Grant, assisted by the grant's co-authors, Mary Kerr and Mike Hooper. While we are taking one last run at a more direct route, building this trail will be a major accomplishment for the group this year. My hope this year is to see this section implemented, and begin work on additional, new grant applications.

And FYI, we're on the hook for 10 large for this sucker. Which reminds me:

DCFT Launches Adopt-a-Tree Program for Kane's Crossing
DCFT and Ohio to Erie Trail are also on the hook for the planting of 35 trees at Kane's Crossing. To help fund this and other endeavors, we are selling sponsorships of each of these 35 trees. On dcft.org, you can find a *.PDF flyer that you can print out and help us disseminate. (Special thanks to graphic artist Brian Hake for redesigning this for me.)

Sponsorship of a tree is $300. When this area of trail is improved, sponsors will be listed on a plaque, likely to be boulder-mounted near the crossing and containing some historical information about the crossing and the brick factory. While trail improvement may be some time away, we are hoping to put the trees in this spring.

Dave Bender is taking the lead on the tree planting, with help as needed from resident tree expert Ted Miller. Stay tuned for details on tree-planting day - we'll need your hands when that day comes.

Dave and I, along with OTE's Jerry Ramepelt, are walking the property with Bob Kane this coming Monday, so we should have more details shortly thereafter.

President's Challenge
I am personally challenging each board member to sell at least two trees. Any DCFT member who sells three (3) trees will earn a free DCFT t-shirt from our new online store. Sweet!

Which reminds me...

Visit DCFT.org. You won't recognize it...

I've done a good deal of updating our website in the past few days, most notably opening a store where you can order DCFT-branded merchandise. Our organization makes $3 from each item ordered.

You'll also find complete details of the adopt-a-tree program, upcoming events, and the schedule for the upcoming year.

My goals for the website this year include building out the Trail Information areas of the site and implementing a more elegant e-mail Distribution system than what Yahoo! offers.

April 21 Trail Clean Up
Celebrate Earth Day by joining us for a clean-up of the Genoa Trail on Saturday, April 21. Volunteers will meet up at 9:30 a.m. at the McNamara Park picnic shelter. The plan is to market this event hard to new Genoa neighborhoods, a well as tie in student involvement from local schools. As such, I see this as a membership expansion opportunity as well as a clean up.

I'm looking for a few volunteers to help out with acquiring clean-up stuff (bags, gloves, trash picker-uppers) and coffee and donuts. Drop me an email if you can help. My Graphic Artist friend is working on a flyer for this event as well. I'll send it out once it is ready.

Genoa Township Update
The southern connection of the Genoa Trail to the Westerville system is still technically closed pending ODOT approval of the push button crosswalks across SR3 from Highland Lakes. The Township and its Parks Advisory Bard (which I chair) is looking at putting on the "Genoa Township Trails Festival" on Saturday, June 2. The event will feature a dedication and official opening of the southern connection, and other activities, such as a 5k run. More details on this event to come, but it should be a perfect fit for our organization.

DCFT Takes Over Community Ties
This is the Big One. DCFT has taken over Community Ties Bike Ride from the Rotary Clubs that have helped put it on in the past. (I think I can still hear wild high fives going on amongst Rotary
members). That means we'll need more volunteer help than we've ever had before for this critical fund raiser.

I've scheduled some Community Ties Team Meetings over the next few months, with the first one being Monday, March 26 at 6:30 p.m. at the Panera Bread located at the corner of SR3 and Maxtown. We'll also be looking to the group overall to help sell sponsorships for this event. More details to come in late March, but please join us on the 26th if you are able.

Membership Dues
Barry sent out membership renewals in January. If you haven't renewed, there are forms available at DCFT.org. There's also a tip jar at DCFT.org which helps offset our hosing fees. Hint. Hint.

2007 DCFT Schedule
Here is our schedule for 2007. We are switching to quarterly meetings this year with guest speakers at each. We'll send out group-wide emails to seek volunteers for various outreach and events as they
occur. Feel free to drop me a line with any questions. This is going to be a great year in trail development and a great year for DCFT. Please make plans to join us.

March 26, 6:30 p.m. Community Ties Planning Meeting, Panera Bread (Corner of SR3 and Maxtown). Come be part of the team that breathes new life into Community Ties. Team Community Ties is, like, the coolest team in or group. We're not even a committee. We're a team. Being a team rocks.

April 18, DCFT Meeting with Guest Speaker TBA, 7 p.m.

April 21, Earth Day Clean Up of Genoa Trail. Meet at McNamara Park shelter at 9:30 a.m. Bring a friend. Eat some donuts. Need I even say it? Good times.

April 26, Sunbury/Big Walnut Community Open House, 6-8 p.m. (DCFT Info Table, need 2-3 volunteers)

May 21, Community Ties Team Meeting, 6:30 p.m., Panera Bread (Corner of SR3 and Maxtown). You so know you love being on Team Community Ties. It rules. Join us and we'll make Ol' Jim Flaherty rue the day he ever gave up this gem of a fundraiser.

May 26, 4th Friday Celebration, Uptown Westerville, 6-9 p.m. (Info table)

June 2, Genoa Township Trails Festival, dedication of Genoa Connection section of trail. Details TBA.

June 20, Community Ties Team Meeting, 6:30 p.m., Panera Bread (Corner of SR3 and Maxtown)

June 23, Wessie Fest (DCFT Info Table), 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Need 4-6 volunteers to staff the info table.

July 18, Regular Meeting with Guest Speaker TBA; Community Ties planning

July 28, Community Ties Ride: We'll need volunteers a'plenty for this event. Staff our info table, help register riders, mark the course, drive the SAG Vehicle, staff a food stop, and more.

October 17, Regular Meeting with Speaker TBD. It will smell like fall and leather around Galena this time of year. Definitely worth your time.

December 19, Holiday Party

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To borrow a phrase fom my favorite leprechaun (Hey - St. Patty's is on Saturday) it's gonna be a magically delicious year. Good times.