INAUGURAL "JUNE CURRY" TRAIL ANGEL AWARD PRESENTED
MISSOULA, MONT. — Adventure Cycling Association has begun an awards program to recognize the contributions made by individuals and organizations in America who promote bicycle touring and improve conditions for cyclotourists. The association’s first-ever “Trail Angel Award” will be presented to June Curry of Afton, Va., at 7 p.m. on Sept. 16 at the Acorn Inn in Nellysford. The presentation will take place during the association’s week-long American Explorer Bicycle Tour.
Tour Director Larry Diskin will present the Trail Angel Award to Curry in front of more than 100 tour participants. Curry, 82, is well known among cyclists riding Adventure Cycling’s TransAmerica Bicycle Trail, which runs through her hometown. Affectionately known as the “Cookie Lady,” Curry has supplied more than 11,000 touring cyclists with refreshments and accommodations over the course of nearly three decades.
After the Sept. 16 presentation, the award will henceforth be presented to future recipients as the “June Curry Trail Angel Award.” The phrase “trail angel” refers to the good Samaritans encountered on a long-distance bicycle tour who make the cyclist’s journey easier, or in some cases even possible, while never requiring or expecting anything in return.
“She’s an interesting lady,” commented cyclist Dan Phillips of Memphis, Tenn. “It’s so obvious that she enjoys meeting the people coming through, the way she gets pictures of everybody and every group.” Those pictures, along with countless letters and postcards from cyclists, are displayed in Curry’s “Bike House,” the hostel she offers to visiting cyclists and a veritable shrine to long-distance cycling.
The Cookie Lady story began in 1976, when Curry baked cookies throughout the summer for Bikecentennial riders as they passed her home in Afton, Va. That year she was featured on Charles Kurault’s “On the Road” TV show. Having grown fond of the touring cyclists passing through her town, she converted part of her house into the Bike House. Cyclists are welcome to stop by any time, spend the night, take a shower, and even make themselves a meal with the supplies Curry stocks in the kitchen. For many years, Curry offered her refreshments and accommodations free of charge; over the years, small donations from the passing cyclists have helped to keep the hostel operating.
Adventure Cycling Association got its start in the early 70s when a group of idealistic cyclists organized the Bikecentennial event to help celebrate the nation’s bicentennial. Since then, the association has grown to be the largest recreational cycling organization in the nation. The association’s mission is to inspire people of all ages to travel by bicycle. Its 42,000 members reside primarily in the United States and Canada. Its major services and products include bicycle-route development and mapping; periodical publishing (Adventure Cyclist magazine and The Cyclists’ Yellow Pages); a bike-tours program; and a Cyclosource sales catalog. On its website, the organization offers a multitude of additional services, including tour-planning resources, a “companions wanted” service (to find touring partners), Bike Bits newsletter, travel journals, and an inspirational National Bicycle Touring Portrait Collection.
Thousands of cyclists annually tour along segments of the association’s 31,735-mile National Bicycle Route Network, which includes three major transcontinental routes and three major north-south routes (from border to border).
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