Bike event's proceeds to endow American River parkway user groups

Money raised through next month's fifth annual Support the Parkway bike ride will, as usual, be earmarked to preserve and protect the American River Parkway, but in a different way than in the past.

For the first time, the ride will raise revenue for an endowment to fund projects for volunteer bicycle, running and kayaking groups and other associations.

"The parkway needs are far more than the county is able to fund," said Jeremy Hollis, president of the American River Parkway Foundation, which will oversee the endowment.

Last month, the foundation sent letters to 125 groups with ties to the parkway, asking them for proposals on how to spend money from the annual event that in 2007 raised $34,000.

Since its inception in 2004, the event has raised nearly $100,000 to benefit the foundation and the Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates, or SABA.

"We first started with 160 riders and raised $14,500, then we got 250 riders and $22,500 the next year, and it has been growing ever since," said Peggy Rex, who with her husband Steve came up with the idea for the bike ride fundraiser.

Steve Rex is a Sacramento custom bike-frame builder with a national reputation, and Peggy is a registered nurse who commutes along the bike trail nearly every day. She is in charge of coordinating the event.

The couple saw the need to raise money for the parkway after county budget cuts in 2003 threatened to close one of the most popular recreational resources in the Sacramento area.

Some say the parkway for the region is what the Eiffel Tower is to France.

"Most of the people are die-hard parkway users," Peggy Rex said of the growing number of supporters for the event.

The June 14 event lets users show their support for the 32-mile parkway, Peggy Rex said.

The parkway includes the bike trail that runs from Discovery Park at the confluence of the Sacramento and American rivers to Folsom Lake.

The event starts and ends at William Pond Recreation Area at the end of Arden Way where it meets the American River in Carmichael.

Register online at www.arpf.org. Check-in is from 7 to 8:30 a.m. and registration is $70. Participants can take in as much of the bike trail as they like or head directly to the barbecue lunch, where they receive a free T-shirt.

"This year, we will be giving away a water bottle, too," Peggy Rex said of the swelling support for the ride.

The success of the bike ride and other fundraising activities that benefit the foundation got board members to think in terms of long-range goals for the parkway, Hollis said.

The foundation, which this year turns 25, has used proceeds from fundraisers to pay for general fund activities such as abatement of non-native vegetation and litter removal projects.

Also funded was construction of a meeting place for foundation members.

In 2005, the foundation raised $250,000 to construct a 1,800- square-foot volunteer center at the Pond park. The center also went up with the help of the Sacramento County Parks Department, cash donations, donated labor and materials.

Now that the center is paid off, the endowment is the next step for the foundation, Hollis said.

It is too early to tell how many proposals will be received by the July 27 deadline, but the funding is expected to begin in 2009.

For the first projects, about $25,000 is expected to be available, Hollis said.

"But we don't know how much money we will have," he said of proceeds from the bike ride and other fundraisers.

"We don't have enough funding for everything," he said.

"The budget for the parkway has been reduced year after year," he said.

"We are hoping to bridge the gap as much as we can," Hollis said.

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