By Dan Korman

The Chicagoland Bicycle Federation has many standout volunteers, and Ron Gurule is no exception.

Ron, 53, started volunteering for the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation shortly after a car door interrupted his bike ride on an overcast day in 2000. The impact threw him to the ground and punctured his lungs. He spent three hours on an operating table and eight days in the trauma room at Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

Ron Gurule

“That accident changed my life,” said Gurule.

Ron recovered quickly and it wasn’t long before he was back on his bike. He signed up for the Boulevard Lakefront Tour that year and found himself talking to then CBF Membership Director Pamela Brookstein about volunteering.

Today, Gurule, who is known for his calm demeanor, helps with mailings and, most notably, telephoning those whose CBF membership fees are overdue to cajole them to renew. “My main motivation for volunteering is to make bike riding safer,” said Gurule, who doesn’t go anywhere on his bike without a helmet-mounted rear-view mirror.

A native of LaFayette, Calif., Ron started bicycling while attending the University of California, Davis, in the early 1970s, climbing hills around the bike-friendly town on a 1940s balloon-tire bike. Before moving to Chicago 14 years ago, he lived briefly in Boston and New York City. He returns to California several times a year to visit his mother.

In addition to riding one of his five Chicago bikes – he has two in California – Ron regularly practices yoga, travels and reads, and photographs the world around him, exhibiting his work regularly. He also manages the portfolio of his partner of 12 years and noted storyteller, Beth Horner.

Ron isn’t sure what he’d be doing if he weren’t volunteering for the CBF. “Bikes are such a big a part of my life,” said Gurule. “I like to monkey around with bikes. They’re a lot easier than cars.”

And he has some advice for those considering getting involved: “We’re getting to a place where people are changing the way they look at the world around them. Plus, I don’t want other people to go through what I went through (with my crash). There are real possibilities here at the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation. The more people we have involved, the more we can get done.”

Dan Korman is the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation director of membership and communications