Highlights from the 2023 Awards Banquet
More than 80 club members and invited guests enjoyed their evening at the Monarch Hotel on February 1, feasting on delicious beef, salmon, and vegetarian meal options, followed by dessert. Adult beverages were available from the no-host bar located in the spacious banquet room.
The featured master of ceremony was our favorite farmer, clad in overalls, Doug Myers. He shared stories from his youth of growing up in Missouri. After a vacation in Nashville, he was inspired and surprised us all with a solo vocal and guitar performance, even though he had not played the guitar for more than 25 years. In case you missed the humorous country tune, you can still catch it on Facebook: “If My Nose Was Running Money.” ✎
Coffee mugs were given to all those who rode 2000 or more club miles in 2023, and everyone who rode 500 or more miles earned a colorful PBC lapel pin. Ride leaders earned a nice pair of cycling socks, and those who led 12 or more rides received a $25 Starbucks gift card. Sixteen lifetime accumulative mileage plaques were presented including a 260K achievement for Scott Poindexter’s 266,253 miles.
For the eight official award categories requiring written nominations, 11 club members nominated 20 different people resulting in 46 nominations. Here are the award winners and edited excerpts from the written nominations received.
1. Jim Mooney Member of the Year: Co-winner Lynn Blanchard
Lynn does a terrific job of putting together a great newsletter every month, which takes a lot more time than most people appreciate. She sets high standards for herself to keep the newsletter “fresh.” She will spend hours finding the perfect new image to include, and then spend many more getting the fonts and links just right. She has a great eye for detail. She innovates with the format of the newsletter, including recently adding a table of contents at the top that lets you jump straight to the articles that interest you most. And she somehow manages to meet her deadline every single month.
In addition to her duties as the editor of the Quick Releases, she is a ride leader for the club and attends club, board, and committee meetings regularly.
Lynn and her husband, “DJ” Blanchard, also provided the 1971-themed background music for last year’s banquet, featuring a memorable game of Name that Tune.
Lynn has spent many hours designing graphics and mailings for Pioneer Century® registration and is on call to help with various other ad hoc projects that require marketing skills and perfect copy. She served on the Pioneer committee and was responsible for getting the Pioneer Century® advertised online. She created and designed the artwork for the Pioneer Century® 2023, including the commemorative poster, incorporating the idea of Pioneers and bicyclists sharing some of the same experiences, cleverly integrating our sponsors into the theme of the poster. She distributed posters to many bike shops and coffee shops in East County, Canby and the coast.
Together with their band, Lynn and her husband provided live traditional American folk pioneer music at the Pioneer Century® finish line.
For our other major event, the STP, Lynn stepped up to be the team leader for return bus transportation in 2023 and has taken on the role of volunteer coordinator for the STP 2024.
Finally, Lynn manages to do all the above with grace under pressure!
1. Jim Mooney Member of the Year: Co-winner Dave McQuery
Dave has served on the PBC board as an active member at large, going on two years. As a member of the safety committee, he collaborated on articles and authored the following: “Check Traffic” a personal account of an encounter with a car at an intersection; “Keys to a Safe STP”; and presented other topics including “Is Cycling Safe?” and “Eye Protection.”
Dave continued as the PBC program coordinator, arranging for guest speakers for our general membership meetings. Included were authors of two cycling adventure books. Cycling and the law was covered by lawyer Ray Thomas, and the workings of “The Street Trust” were presented. Juliana Myers demonstrated the latest CPR techniques.
Dave organized volunteers to help with trail maintenance of the Banks-Vernonia State Trail. He, along with others, assisted Oregon State Parks personnel with repairing potholes and bridge ramps along the trail on full-day work excursions in May, June, July, August and September. Dave kept us informed with monthly progress reports and photos in the Quick Releases. The Oregon State Park ranger in charge was a guest speaker at a club meeting.
Dave volunteered on our two major events, the Pioneer Century® and Seattle to Portland. He marked all the Pioneer courses with washable spray-painted directional symbols over two separate outings. On the day of the event, he provided SAG (support and gear) for the riders. Dave was also a member of the Pioneer Committee, helping organize and plan the event.
For STP, Dave spent four days over the extended weekend, which included posting and retrieving directional route signs between the Longview Bridge and the Portland finish line on Friday and Monday. Sandwiched between these two days were his 12-hour long shifts as bike loading team leader.
Dave was once again the co-organizer of the Jim O’Horo Memorial Columbia Gorge Explorer held over the long Memorial Day weekend.
2. Valued Member of the Year: Ann Morrow
Ann anchors our club, with her conscientious commitment to keep PBC on track. Open a monthly Quick Releases and you will find Ann contributing a significant portion of the articles. Ann is a frequent contributor to the Facebook PBC Group, sharing timely and relevant content.
Ann has volunteered for both of PBC prime events, the Pioneer Century® and Seattle to Portland. Ann once again acted as the start and finish line director at the Pioneer Century®. For STP, she continued with loading cyclists on buses on both Friday and Monday and stepped up as the team leader at the information booth.
As you can see, Ann has exhibited qualities befitting multiple categories, including the club’s top honor “Jim Mooney Member of the Year,” and others (e.g., “Volunteer of the Year,” “Ride Leader of the Year,” and “Newt Acker Goodwill Ambassador of the Year”). Ann has been acknowledged in all these awards, but her accomplishments this year should not go unrewarded.
3. Volunteer of the Year: Richard Higgins
Richard served on the committee that organized and led the successful Pioneer Century® in 2023, procuring food and supplies for the event, and managing the rest stops. Even in 2023, he had already begun planning for the 2024 Pioneer Century® (the bane of every procrastinator’s existence). He is slated to have a key role in organizing the Pioneer for 2024.
He served on the board as member at large and a ride leader in 2023. He authored a series of seven coffee stop articles and two safety articles for the Quick Releases. He accepted the nomination to be vice president in 2024.
For his initiative to be a major player in organizing the Pioneer Century® in 2023 and 2024, his energy, drive, leadership, and hard work on behalf of PBC, Richard deserves recognition as Volunteer of the Year.
4. Newt Acker Goodwill Ambassador: Co-winner Mark Barnes
Mark set the tone for encouraging new cyclists to join PBC through his monthly Top Talk articles published in the Quick Releases. He monitored and commented on social media feeds like the Facebook PBC Group. Mark’s active participation in all types of PBC rides allowed him the opportunity to encourage new riders to join the club. He sought out new faces, welcoming them to their first experience on club rides. Mark organized the production of new stickers and T-shirts promoting the club with the PBC logo.
4. Newt Acker Goodwill Ambassador: Co-winner Joel Loh
Joel always reaches out to greet new members on his rides and engages a wide variety of established riders in his non-club activities.
5. Ride Leader of the Year: Co-winner Chuck Dorr
Chuck most likely takes the award for leading the most rides in inclement weather! We don’t think we’ve ever seen one of his rides canceled. He had a very short time away getting a hip replacement but came back to lead even more rides, with the needed addition of a Slowpoke Ride on Thursdays. In his words, “If I don’t ride, what am I going to do?” Chuck’s rides are always group rides, he continually finds more “new to me” routes (rivaling Bud Rice for sure), he is helpful to new riders, he adapts his rides to the abilities of the riders, and he is always open to try a new coffee stop! [Editor’s note: 130 rides in 2023]
5. Ride Leader of the Year: Co-winner Ann Morrow
Ann selflessly volunteers to be the “tail rider” on many of Bud Rice’s large group rides. In addition to this duty, she continued to lead her “Meet PBC or Back in the Saddle Again” and “RTB Training Ride” series. Ann also led specialty rides like the “Ride of Silence,” “Historic Highway State Trail Ribbon Cutting” and “Clayton Hawkes Memorial” rides. [Editor’s note: 51 rides in 2023]
5. Ride Leader of the Year: Co-winner Bud Rice
It’s not that Bud has never received this award. He took it in 1999, shared it in 2016, and deserved it every year for the past 24 years. This year more than ever we have thought, “Where would we be without Bud’s rides?” They attract the most riders on average, his mystery rides on Wednesdays have become a staple of the club, almost every weekend he offers social rides on one or both days, and his multi-day rides out of town are iconic and have provided many good club memories. [Editor’s note: 109 rides in 2023]
5. Ride Leader of the Year: Co-winner Jeremy Wilson
I see Jeremy Wilson has won the ride leader award twice before, but I thought I’d nominate him again. My nomination is based upon:
Quantity of rides: I can’t believe how many rides he leads. I’m a somewhat regular on the Thursday ride. I struggle to make it every week. Somehow Jeremy leads this ride every week as well as two other rides!
Welcoming: He is very welcoming to new riders. He introduces himself, sees what concerns they may have and gives a rundown on the ride. Years ago, when I first joined PWTC, the group was very cliquish, and this seems like the opposite. I quickly felt like I was part of the gang.
Taking care of folks on the ride: We all ride and want to ride at a pace that pushes us. To keep us together, Jeremy has regular re-groups. He has this down. I wish more rides would follow this. Related to this, enroute, if there is a gap, Jeremy will often fall back and try to connect the groups by providing a draft.
New bicycles: I don’t know how many bicycles he has, but part of the entertainment of riding with him is to see just what bike he will show up with.
If we’re honest though, I have to admit that he is not perfect. I do have an issue with his age/fitness. It doesn’t seem right that someone 10+ years older than I am can drop me so readily. It would only be polite if he struggled a little more. Maybe a goal for him in 2024?
Honestly, I think we have a number of great ride leaders, and many share the attributes I list above (well maybe not as many bicycles). I guess I’m calling out Jeremy in particular for the quantity of rides he leads: three days a week. That is quite a contribution. [Editor’s note: 105 rides in 2023]
6. Most Improved Rider of the Year: Co-winner Mark Barnes
He has built up strength and endurance by commuting to all club rides from West Linn, likely becoming the club’s high miler for 2023. He likes his e-bike but is also strong on rides with his conventional bike, including completion of the STP in one day.
6. Most Improved Rider of the Year: Co-winner Chris Hosman
[Not pictured] Chris accumulated 4289 miles in 2023, up from 616 the year before. Chris trained and had a successful Cycle Oregon. He recently became a ride leader in 2023 for PBC and has led several successful rides.
7. Most Improved New Rider of the Year: Co-winner Michelle Kirsch
Michelle has invested in herself as a cyclist with time in the saddle, a new bike, and the gear she needs to ride in all weather. She began with slower, easier rides and, while she still rides those, she also rides to the rides from Gresham adding about 20 miles to each ride. She’s on the lookout for more challenges and improvement in hill climbing. She is very conscientiously seeking out longer and more challenging rides – as much as one can in the fall and winter.
7. Most Improved New Rider of the Year: Co-winner Ronda McKenzie
Ronda joined the club on July 25 of 2023 and has accumulated over 1600 miles. Cindy Bernert-Coppola rode with her early on (perhaps before Ronda was a member) and Ronda was fit but lacked confidence riding in a group. By the end of the year, Ronda was riding on difficult rides with faster riders, as well as on the more social rides, showed herself to be a great group rider, and even led a ride on December 24 which attracted 15 hardy riders.
7. Most Improved New Rider of the Year: Co-winner Martha Muñoz
Martha joined the club on April 7 of 2023 and has accumulated over 1600 miles. We’re not sure if she joined primarily to train for the STP, but she did train and had a successful ride!
8. Comeback Rider of the Year: Marci Ray
As many PBC’ers probably know, Marci suffered a terrible crash on a club ride last November12, 2022. She broke her collarbone, requiring surgery and a metal plate to repair, and was knocked unconscious for several minutes. The “MIPS”-equipped helmet really did its job, and the doctor described her brain scan as “unremarkable,” which is exactly what you want to hear.
After a three-month recovery, Marci resumed riding in early February and went on her first PBC ride (since the crash) in early March.
Marci finished up attending 118 rides for 3338 miles.
Other Awards (Written member nominations not necessary)
- President’s Choice Award: Richard Higgins (presented by Mark Barnes) Special recognition for duties performed for the club not recognized elsewhere.
- Old Fart Award: Dave McQuery (presented by Chip Kyle) A well-earned, cherished award to a long-time deserving member!
- Get-A-Life Award: Chuck Dorr (presented by Tom Carter) In recognition of outstanding achievement. Awarded to the rider who participated in the most club rides in 2023. Chuck has won this award for seven years running.
- Golden Clipboard: Barry Emmerling & Marci Ray (presented by Cindy Bernert-Coppola) Barry and Marci were recognized for their new, thoroughly researched cycling routes.
- Social Media Photographer Award: Barry Emmerling, Maria Sworske (presented by Alan Coppola) Recognition for their photo documentation and comments on social media platforms.
Click here to see Past Award Recipients.
Corey Eng, Awards Committee Member