WebJunction

My name is Chuck Harmon; I am an OCLC employee and a longtime Adventure Cycling member. When I first learned of this project I was inspired by the concept and I volunteered to coordinate the route research in Ohio.

During the research phase I had the opportunity to visit libraries, museums and cultural centers in many communities along the route. I found a welcome reception in each community that I visited. These organizations provided me with internet access though I was not a local resident; they directed me to sites of historical significance and to one-of- a-kind publications about The Underground Railroad produced in their community. They helped to create a route that will provide a wonderful experience for bicyclists.

After the route was completed I had an opportunity to attend a meeting at The Underground Railroad Museum and Freedom Center in Cincinnati where I met Stephen Thomas Ph.D. and Mario Browne from The Center for Minority Health at The University of Pittsburgh. They helped me to realize that this route can be something more than a nice experience to create for the existing cycling community. This route provides the opportunity to attract a more diverse group of people to bicycling and to inspire people to get off the couch and to get moving. I share their belief that the route can have an impact in closing the racial and cultural gap that still exists in our society and that it can help people find freedom from obesity, high blood pressure and other diseases that are so prevalent in our culture.

I also believe that if our route is to fulfill its full potential, it will come from local initiatives and efforts to promote awareness and use of the route. My hope is that the same libraries, museums and cultural centers that were so helpful in creating the route will now be helpful in welcoming riders into their communities and in finding ways to promote awareness and use of the route.

If you are inspired by this project and if you have ideas about the role that libraries, museums and cultural centers can play in helping it to succeed, please share your comments and ideas in this forum.

Hello! The Underground RR Bicycle Route will roll right by the Delaware County District Library, 84 E. Winter St, Delaware, OH, and as Assistant Director, I would encourage you to visit us on your trip.

The library is open 7 days each week: Monday-Thursday from 9:00-8:00; Friday and Saturday from 9:00-5:00; and Sunday from 1:00-5:00. Our restrooms are clean, and there is even a coffee shop for light refreshments. The coffee shop is open the same hours as the library.

You may want to check your email or access the Internet to check your route, and the library has 20 online computers plus a wireless network throughout the building ready for you.

Log on to the library web site at www.delawarelibrary.org for more information about our services along with a map and contact information.

Delaware is a great place to visit with several unique and tasty restaurants in the downtown area within walking distance of the library, such as the Brown Jug, Bun's, Old Bag of Nails, El Acapulco, Nova, Rudy Z's, Amato's Woodfired Pizza, Chelly Belly's Deli, and Gullah's Hotdogs. A short bike ride away will take you to most of the national fast food restaurants (McDonald's, Wendy's, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC, and so forth).

I look forward to seeing many of you roll into the library's parking lot this summer. If I'm in the library, I hope you stop in my office to introduce yourself.

Cycle safely.

Regards,
Mary Jane Santos
mjsantos@delawarelibrary.org

Greetings -

Hi! I'm Ginny Sullivan, New Routes Coordinator for Adventure Cycling Association. I am thrilled that WebJunction is a part of this project and that libraries will serve as "stations" to cyclists as they experience the Underground Railroad.

Be sure and check out our website and the associated pages for the Underground Railroad Bicycle Route- soon to be updated and more interactive. For now, you can view a map of the corridor route and download a brochure (look on the right navigation bar) from here: www.adventurecycling.org/routes/undergroundrailroad.cfm

From that page (scroll to the bottom) you can also learn more about the Center for Minority Health at the University of Pittsburgh and our partnership with them by downloading an article from our magazine (called Adventure Cyclist).

There are many stories to tell related to the Underground Railroad - from the origins of US slavery, abolitionist cause and civil rights movement to the call for emancipation and the Civil War. By learning about the past - we hope people can gain insight to this painful time in our history - and move forward - in mind, spirit and body - by exploring the landscapes and history by bicycle.

Please consider working with us so the stories can be told. Whether your library is on the route or not - we hope you will find a way to engage your community in the process.

Our project goals:
1. This project can introduce bicycling to new demographics through interpretive, promotion and resource development.
2. Develop a strong working partnership with affected communities to develop, map, and promote the UGRR route;
3. Research and map a route running from the Deep South to Cincinnati and on to Lake Erie (the route traverses more than 2,000 miles) and Canada;
4. Publish two types of maps sets – for long-distance cyclists and for cyclists who want to do short rides in the 10 to 20 mile range (the latter maps are critical for reaching out to casual and beginning riders);
5. Generate major visibility for the route, the Underground Railroad and especially for bicycling, through outreach, promotions and special events.

We will hold tours on the route beginning in 2007 and cyclists can start using our maps this summer (releasing first sections this July). Please let us know if you'd like to be involved in this or other Adventure Cycling Routes. For a complete look at our routes: www.adventurecycling.org/routes/network.cfm

You can reach me at gsullivan@adventurecycling.org Thank you and hope to communicate with you soon!

Hi:

Here's Ashtabula County District Library, which intends to participate in this project in some form or another.

There's a lot of interest in Underground Railroad History here... one of our staff, an avid quilter, just completed a 60" x 90" quilt with squares depicting UGRR themes, and we have the Hubbard House Museum, a safe house and/or terminus, for people who crossed Lake Erie from Ashtabula.

Also, just this past year the community completed a project creating a series of UGRR Historical Markers that will be placed throughout the county... so I think there will be a lot of interest in this. I've been told more than once that it was said back in the day it was "easier to get a soul out of hell than a slave out of Ashtabula County."

I'll stay in touch.

Tom Milligan
Community Relations Coordinator
Ashtabula County District Library
<tom.milligan@cacl.info>
440-992-1306, ext. 238

...attempting to attach a photo of the quilt... looks like it worked.

Thanks for the quick welcome...

T

Attachments:

Best_Quilt.JPG (257.9k)

Spring is here and the project is getting into high gear. I want to post this bit from the Adventure Cycling newsletter:

"The quantity of newspaper coverage the Underground Railroad Bicycle Route has garnered recently is unprecedented for an Adventure Cycling project, with the possible exception of the ink earned by the original Bikecentennial ride in 1976. Newspapers across the country, and even across the oceans--in Japan, for instance--have run stories about the new route."

Here's [url http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07091/774321-37.stm ]one from the Pittsburgh Gazette[/url].