SEQUIM — Following years of bike rodeos, bike repair workshops, an educational cycling website and helping the Tour de Lavender grow, the Olympic Peninsula Bicycling Alliance has disbanded.
The all-volunteer nonprofit group started in 2017 by Ken Stringer and other local bike enthusiasts to promote bicycling, bicycle safety and advocate for bicycle-safe and bicycle-friendly roads and communities on the Olympic Peninsula.
OPBA board member Tom Coonelly said they had upwards of 70 members with multiple events a year, but people have either moved on or don’t have enough energy to continue the events on their own.
As the group formalized plans to disband, board members agreed to grant OPBA’s remaining funds to eight organizations. They’ll each receive $3,969.
Groups include the Joe Rantz Rotary Youth Fund through the Sequim Sunrise Rotary Foundation, Olympic Discovery Trail through the Peninsula Trails Coalition, Olympic Theater Arts’ OTA Singers, The Recyclery of Jefferson County, the Boys & Girls Club of the Olympic Peninsula, Sequim Food Bank, Sequim Wheelers and Sequim Cub Scout pack 4490.
“I feel like we really made a difference,” Coonelly said.
“Ken Stringer was the driving force, and we had an incredible website that showed rides all over the Peninsula.”
He said the website was taken down due to costs.
OPBA also developed and conducted the first local Bike Rodeo for elementary school children in Sequim in 2018 using the League of American Bicyclists’ model.
“It was pretty amazing on a decent day with a bunch of kids riding around to see the progress they’d make in just an hour,” Coonelly said.
The Bike Rodeo package and equipment has been transferred to the Cub Scout Pack 4490 to continue to produce the event, he said.
OPBA sponsored bike safety classes in Sequim too.
Coonelly said their greatest accomplishment was the development of the Tour de Lavender bike ride.
Conceptualized by Dan and Janet Abbott, owners of George Washington Inn/Washington Lavender, the event started in 2013 to promote Sequim’s lavender farms and encourage cycle tourism to the area.
OPBA operated the Tour de Lavender and eventually handed it off to the Peninsula Trails Coalition as a major cycling fundraising event. Last summer, more than 1,100 riders participated.
Coonelly said the ride grew larger than OPBA organizers felt comfortable handling, so it was transferred to the Peninsula Trails Coalition.
