Category Archives: Volunteer

by Lorenz M. Worden | June 30, 2016 · 5:44 pm

Cycle the Erie Canal Finish Line Volunteers

Parks & Trails NY is looking for VOLUNTEERS for this year’s Cycle the Erie Canal Finish Line Celebration – Sunday, July 17, Albany Heritage Area Visitors Center, Quackenbush Square. Arrive at 9:00 AM – instructions and setup. If possible, please stay until at least 1:30 PM. If you are interested in volunteering, please let us know by July 5.

CONTACT:

James Meerdink
(518) 434-1583
jmeerdink@ptny.org
Parks & Trails New York – www.ptny.org

The Erie Canalway Trail is a cycling destination that spans New York State, following one of the world’s most famous manmade waterways. Cycle the Erie Canal is an annual 8-day bike tour from Buffalo to Albany. Riders of all ages, from all over the country, travel across New York for a one-of-a-kind experience. And they all finish in Downtown Albany!

Be a part of a major Downtown event, welcome and celebrate with visitors coming to our City, support and promote ridership in Albany, and have some fun with your friends, neighbors, and guests.

Don’t forget, YOU help make this Finish Line a celebration… enjoy area restaurants (Albany Pump Station, the Olde English Pub), local food trucks, and live music!

Please arrive at 9:00 AM for instructions and setup. We understand you may not be able to stay all day, but it would be helpful if volunteers could stay until at least 1:30 PM.

If you are interested in volunteering, please let us know by July 5.

More about the Tour – here.

PTNY has the following volunteer needs for this year’s Cycle the Erie Canal Finish Line Celebration, which will occur on Sunday, July 17 at the Albany Heritage Area Visitors Center at Quackenbush Square. Undoubtedly, we’ll have a few riders who come in early, but the finish line doesn’t officially open until after 10 AM. However, we’d like all volunteers there at 9:00 AM to help setup. It would be helpful if volunteers could stay until at least 1:30.

Interested volunteers should let us know by July 5.

Primary Volunteer Needs:

Bike Parking Assistant: NEED 1 (Description: Assist riders in parking bikes in bike corral; monitor corral)

9:00 AM – 1:30 PM

Shuttle Registration Assistant: NEED 1 (Description: Assist PTNY staff with shuttle registration, handing out shuttle tickets, and directing riders to bike loading and shuttle luggage staging areas)

9:00 AM – 1:30 PM

Information Table Assistant: NEED 1 (Description: Assist PTNY staff in distributing general information – including directions for shuttle, bike shipping, shower and train station locations, and other services)

9:00 AM – 1:30 PM

Route Assistants: NEED 5 (Description: Direct riders from the terminus of the Erie Canalway Trail at the boat launch in Corning Riverfront Park to the finish line at Quackenbush Square via an on-road connection; volunteers will be placed at multiple intersections and turns along the road route; volunteers may want to arrive on bike to be able to be able to reach their locations more quickly)

9:00 AM – 1:30 PM

Parking Lot Assistant: NEED 1 (Description: Assist PTNY in managing traffic flow through parking area at rear of Visitor’s Center) 9:00 AM – 1:30 PM

Floater: NEED 1 (Description: Various tasks as needed in coordination with PTNY staff) 9:00 AM – 1:30 PM

Other Volunteer Needs:

Welcome/Cheer Section: NEED 5 (Description: Welcome and cheer cyclists and they approach finish line at Albany Visitor Center at Quackenbush Square) 9:00 AM – 1:30 PM

A Trike, A Trailer, and A Tiger

Cleaning the Uncle Sam Trial in Troy – 4/23/26 – The photo says it all – Albany Bicycle Coalition member David with a trailer of trash from the trail

Eight hours of work produced five bags of trash and an additional bag left behind on the trail. Two more bags resulted from a return visit on the following day. It’s all good …

Uncle Sam Trail Clean Up 4-23-16

Volunteering as a Bike Mechanic for the Tour de Cure

My alarm went off at 6:30 on Sunday morning. I had all my tools ready, so I threw them in a backpack, grabbed something to eat, and headed out the door. A few blocks away I picked up Dan, who had also volunteered to be a roaming bike mechanic for the 20th Tour de Cure.

We arrived at Saratoga Springs High School and met up with Brent, our contact there. We got bright yellow t-shirts that said we were volunteers. He split us up; each of us teamed up with a radio operator and a vehicle, and around 9 we were off.

There were a lot of cyclists there. I heard rumors that there were 2000. When you have rides of different mileages, you get a lot of different people. Obviously the vast majority were racers in full kit, but I saw some people on trikes, some nice cruisers, young guys on mountain bikes, and a lot of kids. They took off in waves, and it was impressive to see so many cyclists.

Dave, my radio guy, was a real pleasure to work with. He was very familiar with the area and had a lot of great stories. We were “Roamer 2”, and we patrolled Area 2 in a donated Nissan Xterra.

I don’t know why they gave us a mammoth SUV to drive around with cyclists, and I told them as much. Of course, event coordinators understand that, but Lia donated the vehicles and they probably just wanted to show off something shiny.

Most of what I did was pump up tires. People who had problems would notify anyone with a volunteer shirt, who would notify control, who would notify us to go help them. By the time we got there to help out, most people had already swapped tubes. We usually showed up just in time to pull out the big air pump and wrap things up.

I did have to tinker with a lot of kid’s bikes. This is my only real judgmental complaint. I don’t understand why people ride a department store kid’s bike 25 miles, without tuning it up first. That’s got to be brutal. The nice thing, after helping them out, was looping around through the route and seeing these kids still on the road, pedaling away.

It was interesting to see all the cyclists riding on roads with cars. Despite being told to follow the rules of the road, most blew through stop signs and red lights, and often look the entire lane making it impossible for cars to get by. At one point we had to tell some people to get out of the lane for oncoming traffic. There’s a lot of room for education at events like this.

After a few hours of that we got lunch. And ice cream.

I had a good time. I don’t consider myself much of a bike mechanic, but it was really nice to help out, even with my meager skills. Maybe next year, the ABC can send more than two people.

Written by Ethan

Volunteer For Tour De Cure

We all, I assume, like to help people once in a while. It makes you feel good, and it helps people in need. Well here’s your chance. We got an email in our inbox recently that might peak your mechanical interest.

“I am a volunteer with the Diabete’s Associations “Tour de Cure” bike event. I am writing because we are in desperate need of some volunteers for our event. I am specifically looking for people who could help for a few hours with some bike repair on the routes. The ADA has cars, drivers and HAM radio operators, but we still need some people with basic bike mechanic skills. If anyone in your organization would be willing to help, it would be greatly appreciated. You contact me at bpierce@nycap.rr.com . The event is Sunday, June 5th, at Saratoga High School. Thank you.”