New Horizons: a special message from Chris Rall

[Chris Rall]

Friends,

My Wife, Becky and I have found that we need the kind of help raising our kids that only grandparents can give.  We will be moving to Portland to get that help this month.  I have become so attached to this community, it’s tough to leave, but our children’s care comes before my own personal love for Humboldt and the wonderful people I’ve come to know.

Aaron Antrim and I started the Green Wheels project under the NEC two years ago with a dream for Humboldt County. Our vision is of a micropolitan community around Humboldt Bay, where getting around without a car is easy because the community planned it that way. Green Wheels now communicates that vision on our blog, in the Community Wheel, in events like sidewalk-bushwackers, and by engaging decision-makers on issues like the 101 Safety Corridor, the railroad, transit funding and the General Plan Update, to name just a few.

In the last year we have had many successes.  Our Community Wheel magazine continues to inform and inspire people throughout Humboldt about the benefits of balanced transportation.  With the help of folks like you, we have moved key projects forward like the Cooper Gulch Trail.  And our persistence with the North Coast Railroad Authority on railbanking railroad rights-of-way to build trails has helped to move the Annie and Mary Trail and other trail projects closer than ever to fruition.

Green Wheels’ vision and ambitions are big, but our budget is small.  While we have won contracts for consulting work, most of my time for Green Wheels has been pro bono. My departure will obviously mean changes for Green Wheels.

However, Green Wheels is made up of a dedicated, spirited, savvy and fun cadre of people who donate their time and resources to make the organization hum and roll.  Green Wheels will adapt.  We have a strong board, dynamic development director Ashley Hanson, an enthusiastic base of volunteers, and a growing membership. Most of all we have a shared vision for a future Humboldt that is greener, healthier and more prosperous because more transportation choices are available to more people.

With these changes we must turn to our community, to those of you who share this vision, and ask that you play a role in the transition:

• Please complete this survey to help us prioritize where Green Wheels should continue to focus, and where to prune.
• Go to our website to join, renew or donate a little extra to give us the support we need during this demanding transition.
• Contact us to find out how you can volunteer (633-4488, in...@green-wheels.org).

Thanks to everyone for all the support that has built Green Wheels to what it is now.

See you out there!

-Chris

P.S.  We are having a going away party this Wed. Oct. 7, 5pm until late at The Arcata Theatre and Lounge.  Stop in and have a beer with us!  If you miss that or even if you don’t, come to our Community Wheel Release Party the following night at Gallagher’s in Eureka.

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Chris Rall
Executive Director
Green Wheels
www.green-wheels.org
707.633.4488