What a whirlwind few weeks it has been. It’s been an extremely busy time getting the Market to Midtown Bikeway launched, finishing the last minute details and experiencing the rousing success of our inaugural fundraiser ride, and now big news we’ve been keeping under our hats (helmets): as of today we've doubled the size of our full time staff and more than tripled our office space! 

Ok, so we’ve gone from 1 to 2 full time employees - that’s still double! And yesterday we upgraded from the dorm room office that has served us well the last 3 years to a small office suite in the historic Piano Building at 49th & Dodge where everyone will have their own space. Did we mention the ORBT bus stop steps from the front door? An adjacent ORBT stop was the top item on our wish list when looking for a new office location. Our part time Operations Manager Mona, as expected, did a spectacular job handling all of the details of the move while I took a much needed vacation. 

Now without further ado, I am thrilled to introduce the amazing Annabelle Abisset, our new Program Coordinator! If you’re plugged into cool stuff happening in Omaha, you’ve likely met her: she recently earned an MPA from UNO, she’s spent time making great community connections at the UNO Community Engagement Center  and ONE Omaha and recently she’s been working as a volunteer coordinator at Lauritzen Gardens   and as the ESL Program Coordinator at InCommon Community Development. Annabelle is passionate about active transportation and we can’t wait to get her plugged into our Omaha specific work. Most exciting, though, is that she will be coordinating the work of our new initiative to bring more natural surface trails to north and south Omaha. Having a bilingual (tri if you count French) staff member will add to our ability to work with community stakeholders on a deeper, more effective level. We will have much more to report about this work soon. 

Whew. That’s a lot. We’re grateful for your support of our mission; without it, we would not have been in a position to take this next step as an organization. 

Now let’s see if I can find the box where my power cord got packed...