EAST COAST RIVER RELAY
Building partnerships, raising awareness, celebrating 25 years of the East Coast Greenway Alliance
FALL 2017 THANK YOU TO OUR RIVER RELAY SUPPORTERS
Communities hosting River Relay events
FALL 2017
Expanding partnerships, forging ahead Every once in a while, it’s good to take a big risk the world. The River to see what we can achieve. We did that in the fall Relay brought to life of 2017: We celebrated our 25th anniversary by the myriad ways the hosting a continuous 57-event series throughout our East Coast Greenway entire corridor in collaboration with over 200 fosters environmental organizations — the biggest program in our history. sustainability, public health, and economic Thanks to the focus and dedication of Relay development from Program Manager Mary Beth Powell and crucial rural Maine to urban work by everyone on our team, we surpassed our centers of the Mid-Atlantic and coastal goals and expanded partnerships that can help us communities of the Southeast. complete the Greenway in the next 25 years. As someone who grew up enamored by creeks and Onward to Greenway progress, rivers, it was a dream to celebrate the 50 beautiful rivers our Greenway provides access to for tens of millions of Americans and visitors from around Dennis Markatos-Soriano, Executive Director
East Coast Greenway Alliance • Connecting people to place, Maine to Florida • greenway.org • 919.797.0619 FROM AUG. 24-OCT. 28, 2017, WE TRAVELLED FROM THE CANADIAN BORDER TO THE FLORIDA KEYS, CELEBRATING 1 GREENWAY, 50 RIVERS, & OUR 25th BIRTHDAY
204 6,315 12 PARTNERS, INCLUDING 60 EVENT GOVERNORS & RIVER/WATERSHED ORGANIZATIONS PARTICIPANTS MAYORS PARTICIPATING
OVER 66 DAYS, WE HOSTED 57 PUBLIC EVENTS, INCLUDING:
13 8 10 3 7 5 22 WALKS & RUNS EDUCATIONAL PADDLES DEDICATIONS PLANTINGS/ BREWERY BIKE RIDES TALKS CLEANUPS SOCIALS
OVERALL IMPACT: INCREASED VISIBILITY, PARTNERSHIPS, & MOMENTUM:
17 million 50 3,000 ONLINE REACH, SOCIAL MEDIA KEY RIVERS HIGHLIGHTED MILES EXPERIENCED & NEWS STORIES ALONG OUR ROUTE & CELEBRATED
LEARN MORE: GREENWAY.ORG/RIVER-RELAY Environmental stewardship
Volunteers in Wilmington, NC, paddled to an island in the Cape Fear River to collect trash
Event Sampler RIVER STEWARDSHIP: Throughout the Relay, we honored the 50 key rivers along the East Coast Greenway. With walks, paddles, talks, and more, we Eastern Trail bird walk, celebrated rivers that have made impressive comebacks—Boston’s Charles Scarborough, ME River, the mid-Atlantic’s Delaware River—and called attention to rivers that Paddle on Bronx River, are struggling—the Neuse and Cape Fear in North Carolina, Indian River New York City Lagoon in Florida. We look forward to continued collaboration with our river- keeper and watershed partners. Ellerbe Creek cleanup, Durham, NC Cape Fear River island “We collaborated to promote the River Relay and our annual cleanup, Wilmington, NC River Days, helping both organizations reach larger audiences. Shoreline cleanup & Connecting trails and waterways helps build constituencies stabilization, Daytona Beach, FL dedicated to environmental awareness and conservation.” — BRIAN DUVALL, ALLIANCE FOR WATERSHED EDUCATION OF THE DELAWARE RIVER Climate change/resiliency
Collecting Hudson River sample in New York City: Dennis Markatos-Soriano, ECGA executive director, and Michael Oppenheimer, Princeton University professor of geosciences and international affairs
“The East Coast Greenway is one of the many Event Sampler
projects our country and world needs to invest in Climate lunch & walk with to reduce emissions, adapt to rising sea levels, Michael Oppenheimer, New York City and tackle the challenge of climate change.” Marsh walk & talk at — PROF. MICHAEL OPPENHEIMER, GLOBAL CLIMATE EXPERT Dupont Environmental Education Center, Wilmington, DE COASTAL RESILIENCY: Our Relay bike/walk tour with Hoboken, NJ, officials looked at the city’s response to flooding—and the role that greenways can Indian River Lagoon & play. Since Hurricane Sandy’s record tides soaked the city in 2012, leaders Spoil Island restoration have adopted tactics to manage heavy rainfalls and sea surges that include tour, Fort Pierce, FL building “resiliency parks” with porous surfaces on top of huge collection tanks to temporarily store large quantities of water. Our tour ended at the Biscayne Bay boat tour with Miami Waterkeeper & Hudson River Waterfront Walkway on the Greenway, where landscaping on Florida Sea Grant, Miami, FL the piers increase absorbent surfaces and reduce runoff. Health
Public yoga class near the Greenway’s Underline in Miami
Event Sampler “As native people, as Passamaquoddy, we welcome the East Coast Greenway as a way to FreeWalkers 18-mile walk on Greenway, New York City help people connect their bodies, hearts, and minds — and to better connect them to the Bike ride from farmers beautiful land around us.” market, Baltimore, MD — DENISE ALTVATER, MAINE WABANAKI PROGRAM, PERRY, ME Ales for Trails 5K run, Durham, NC INSPIRING WELLNESS, OUTDOOR TIME: A bike safety rodeo in Gilbert Middle School bike Jacksonville, FL, illustrated how health and environmental advocates rodeo, Jacksonville, FL make great teammates. We joined the Eastside Environmental Council as they started a bike club at a middle school in a low-income neighborhood Underfit Yoga class at the along with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department and Health Planning Underline, Miami, FL Council of Northeast Florida (Safe Routes to School). University of Florida’s Trauma One unit and North Florida Bicycle Club distributed free helmets; an REI rep shared maintenance tips and showed the students how to fix flat tires. The enthusiasm meter among the students? Off the charts. Economic development
Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes and former planning director Jack Walker cut ribbon on trailhead
“Trails and greenways Event Sampler City leaders’ welcome breakfast, Putnam, CT improve the overall health American Folk Festival on the of an entire community. Our Bangor Waterfront, ME Trailhead ribbon cutting, Myrtle Beach, SC River Trail gives people a Welcome to NH with Gov. safe, accessible place to Sununu & other officials, Greenway sign dedication Portsmouth, NH exercise, but it also connects & reception, Titusville, FL businesses to a very active downtown, where we’re EMBRACING TRAILS: City leaders rolled out the red carpet excited to see an increase in for a Greenway dedication in Titusville, FL, during the Relay. Since the 1960s, NASA space-related industries and tourism new businesses developing were the city’s economic lifeblood. As investment in the space along the way.” program ebbs and flows, the city has reinvented itself and is fast earning its nickname, “Trail Town.” Promoting the city as — DELPHA VERY, DIRECTOR OF an active travel destination, Titusville leaders point to the East ECONOMIC & COMMUNITY Coast Greenway as a key component of their impressive multi- DEVELOPMENT, PUTNAM, CT use trail network. Thanks to our East Coast River Relay partners
National/Regional Connecticut Washington D.C. Georgia Adventure Cycling Association Bike Walk Bolton Capital Trails Coalition Altamaha Riverkeeper Alliance for Watershed Education of the Farmington River Watershed Association Potomac Riverkeeper Network Brunswick Downtown Devel. Authority Delaware River Merritt Parkway Trail Alliance Washington Area Bicyclists Association Camden BIcycle Center American Rivers Park Watershed Camden Cycling Club Association for the Advancement of Putnam Redevelopment Agency Virginia City of Brunswick Sustainability in Higher Education Riverfront Recapture Bike Walk RVA City of St. Marys FreeWalkers Town of Putnam Crossroads Coffee Shop Coastal Georgia Greenway, Inc. League of American Bicyclists Dan River Basin Association Fitness on Broughton Live Nation New York Groundwork RVA Georgia Bikes National Park Service Rivers, Trails & Bronx River Alliance James River Park System Georgia Conservancy Conservation Assistance Hudson Riverkeeper Mecklenburg County Georgia Rivers Network Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Waterfront Alliance Richmond Regional Planning District Healthy Savannah River Network New Jersey Commission Kayak Kafe Sept. 11 National Memorial Trail Alliance City of Hoboken Roanoke River Rails to Trails Ogeechee Riverkeeper Whole Foods Market Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed Southside Planning District Commission One Hundred Miles D&R Greenway Land Trust stayArlington St. Marys Riverkeeper Maine New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition Tobacco Heritage Trail Satilla Riverkeeper American Folk Festival New Jersey Conservation Foundation Virginia Bicycling Federation Savannah Bicycle Campaign Bicycle Coalition of Maine Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association Virginia Capital Trail Foundation Savannah Riverkeeper Bold Coast Scenic Bikeway Virginia Department of Conservation Service Brewing Company Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust Pennsylvania and Recreation SouthEast Adventure Outfitters City of Calais Bartram’s Garden Virginia Tourism Corporation Eastern Trail Alliance Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia Visit Alexandria Florida Friends of Scarborough Marsh The Circuit Trails Visit Mecklenburg County Amelia Island Trail Maine Audubon Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage City of Daytona Beach Maine Sports Commission Corridor North Carolina City of Fernandina Beach Maine Tourism Association Delaware River City Corporation Bull City Running Company City of Fort Pierce Merrymeeting Wheelers Bicycle Club Delaware River Waterfront Corporation Cape Fear River Watch, Inc. City of Jacksonville Passamaquoddy Tribe of Indian Township Delaware Riverkeeper Network City of Fayetteville City of Neptune Beach Schoodic Riverkeepers Pennsylvania Environmental Council City of Wilmington City of Titusville Topsham Historical Society Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Deep River Brewing Company Eastside Environmental Council Wabanaki Culture Center Stroud Water Research Center Dimensions Family School Florida Department of Environmental Washington County Council of Governments Delaware Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association Protection, Division of Parks and Recreation Bike Delaware Extra Terrestrial Projects & Office of Greenways and Trails New Hampshire City of Wilmington Fayetteville Area Metropolitan Planning Florida Department of Transportation Gundalow Company Delaware Greenways Organization Florida Sea Grant/University of Florida IFAS New Hampshire Seacoast Greenway Alliance Delaware Nature Society’s DuPont Fullsteam Brewery Friends of The Amelia Island Trail Rockingham Planning Commission Environmental Education Center Haw River Assembly Friends of Ludlam Trail Seacoast Science Center New Castle County Keep New Hanover County Beautiful Friends of the Underline Riverfront Development Corporation of North Carolina Conservation Network John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park Massachusetts Delaware Roanoke River Partners Jonathan Dickinson State Park Bike to the Sea, Inc. Wilmington Area Planning Council Sound Rivers Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum Blackstone River Corridor Sustainable Sandhills Jupiter Water Taxi Charles River Museum of Industry Maryland Town of Clayton Little Talbot Island State Park & Innovation Anne Arundel County Police Department Triangle Land Conservancy Marine Discovery Center Charles River Watershed Association Anne Arundel County Water Access Comm. Upper Neuse Riverkeeper Matanzas Riverkeeper Idlehands Craft Ale Bicycle Advocates for Annapolis & Anne Wilmington Metropolitan Planning Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Massachusetts Rivers Alliance Arundel County Organization Miami-Dade County Mystic River Watershed Association Bike Maryland Miami Waterkeeper Waltham Land Trust Bikemore South Carolina North Florida Bicycle Club Watch City Bike Lab Blue Water Baltimore Bike Walk Myrtle Beach Pegasus Foundation Chesapeake Conservancy Boeing South Carolina REI-Jacksonville Rhode Island Druid Hills Farmers Market Charleston Moves Sailfish Brewery Blackstone Parks Conservancy Friends of Anne Arundel County Trails Charleston Waterkeeper St. Johns River to Sea Loop Alliance Fox Point Neighborhood Association Greater Baltimore Wilderness Coalition City of Charleston Saint Lucie County Friends of India Point Park Maryland Department of Transportation City of Myrtle Beach Space Coast Transportation Planning Org. Narragansett Boat Club Outward Bound–Baltimore/Chesapeake Bay East Cooper Land Trust Timucuan Parks Foundation Rhode Island Bicycle Coalition Patuxent Riverkeeper East Smart Move More South Carolina TItusville Chamber of Commerce Rhode Island Rivers Council Severn River Association Friends of the Spanish Moss Trail Treasured Lands Foundation Seekonk Riverbank Revitalization Alliance Keep Charleston Beautiful Tri-Athletica Sports Waterman Street Dog Park The Underline UF Health Shands Hospital-Jacksonville