October 25, 2006
Adventure Cycling Presents Annual Bicycling Award
Missoula, Montana — Adventure Cycling Association, America's largest cycling organization, is pleased to announce the winner of its nationally recognized Volunteer of the Year Award.
"The second annual Volunteer of the Year Award has been earned by Wally Werner of Centennial, Colorado,” said outreach and education coordinator Becky Douglas. “The award will be presented to Werner in a special ceremony at Adventure Cycling’s booth at the Denver Veloswap at 11 am on Saturday, October 28. The ceremony will be led by Adventure Cycling Life Member Fran Rulon-Miller.”
A seventeen-year member, and now Life Member of Adventure Cycling, Werner has served as a leader on many guided trips for the organization and has been a prolific volunteer for the past eight years. As a founding member of Adventure Cycling’s leadership development team, Werner has been instrumental in developing the curriculum and materials for the Leadership Training Course, a three-day course that teaches cyclists the ins and outs of guiding self-contained cycling trips. He also developed materials for Adventure Cycling’s Intro to Road Touring and Intro to Mountain Bike Touring courses (which he also frequently teaches), 6-day trips that teach aspiring riders how to head out for days on their own. In addition, Werner has made himself available to Adventure Cycling tour leaders as an on-call resource whenever they need help or advice while on tour. “I keep an open line to tour leaders,” says Werner. “Basically, I have given my phone number to anyone who wants it so I can help them work through difficult situations.”
“Wally was a great leader — he provided just enough guidance as not to let us get into trouble, but was hands-off enough so we could build the confidence to do touring on our own,” says one rider in a recent course of Werner’s. “During the week, there were many profound moments — like when my son told me he was really glad he came and mentioned that Wally thought he should ride the Great Divide Route and he decided that was something he would definitely do.”
“Quite simply, Wally goes above and beyond any expectations we may have had for volunteers,” says Julie Emnett, Adventure Cycling’s associate development director. “We are very fortunate to have a volunteer of his caliber.”
“My goal is to allow people to gain skill and confidence in their own bicycling ability so they can take themselves to whatever level they aspire to,” Wally explains.
“Wally is just what the bicycling world needs,” ads Douglas. "He’s incredibly passionate and motivated to share his love of cycling. We are very grateful for his efforts and proud to name him our 2006 Volunteer of the Year.”
Adventure Cycling Association, a 501(c)(3), 43,000-member nonprofit, is America's largest cycling organization. Dedicated to inspiring people of all ages to travel by bicycle, Adventure Cycling’s services include bicycle-route development and mapping, periodical publishing (Adventure Cyclist magazine and The Cyclists' Yellow Pages resource directory), and a guided bicycle travel program. Adventure Cycling’s National Bicycle Route Network comprises 34,926 miles of mapped, on- and off-road bicycle routes. For more information, visit www.adventurecycling.org.
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