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The Story Behind A BFA: Arvada Gardeners
Since the Bicycle Friendly America program began, we’ve seen so many amazing applications come our way from communities, businesses, and universities across the country. You can find every award on our Bicycle Friendly America map, but what’s a little harder to capture is the story behind every award — so we set up a way for the advocates behind the awards to tell us more about the people on the ground building a Bicycle Friendly America for everyone.
Today, meet the Bicycle Friendly Business (BFB) of Arvada Gardeners in Arvada, Colorado. The all-volunteer-run community garden renewed its status as a Bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Business award in our Fall 2021 round. Read more and be inspired by this BFB connecting its love for nature to the people who bike, walk and roll in their community.
What does this award mean for your business?
It puts us out there as the only Bicycle Friendly Business in the Silver-level Bicycle Friendly Community of Arvada and the only community garden in the Bicycle Friendly Business program. It makes us special and attracts more attention and support for our efforts.
What (or who) made your decision to apply to the Bicycle Friendly Business program?
Bill Orchard, a gardener and a member of Bike Friendly Arvada. A joint partnership with local advocacy seemed like a great idea.
How has bike culture at your Bicycle Friendly Business changed since your first award back in 2017?
More gardeners are riding their bikes to the garden, we had our first-ever Community Garden bike ride where five community gardens in Arvada were visited on an 18-mile ride, more amenities are provided including garden and bike tools, bottled water and secure bike parking.
What is the biggest bicycling advancement your Bicycle Friendly Business has made? Anything you’re looking forward to in 2022?
The bike ride to five community gardens in Arvada! As for future plans, the bike path that runs adjacent to the garden is being upgraded and the city will add a bike repair station as part of the upgrade. It might not happen in 2022 but probably in 2023.
Rather than being an isolated block-long path, the bike path along the garden will be made part of a connector to two other bike paths, the Van Bibber Creek Trail and the Ralston Creek Trail. It will then become an official part of the Arvada bike routes and be shown on all the trail maps. The bike traffic is expected to then increase and we thought this would be a great place for a bike repair station. And the city agreed!
The League is proud to be working with communities, businesses, universities, and local advocates in every space imaginable to create safe and inclusive places for everyone to bike. Join us Monday, March 28th at the 2022 National Bike Summit for Bike Advocacy Through Community Connections, a virtual breakout session where speakers will demonstrate how they’ve utilized community spaces, from public libraries to places of worship, in the promotion of bicycling and in increasing bike advocacy engagement.
If you would like to see your story on our blog or on our social media, share your journey to being better for people who bike with us now, and if you would like to see your business earn the League’s Bicycle Friendly Business designation, apply today at apply.bikeleague.org or learn more at bikeleague.org/business. There are three submission deadlines to apply to the BFB program in 2022: March 2, June 15, and November 3.