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Board Member Wins Mayor's Advocacy Award
By David Callahan
Logan
Square community activist and Chicagoland Bicycle Federation
board member Lucy Gomez-Feliciano was awarded with the Mayor Daley’s
Bicycling Advisory Council Individual Award during last month’s
Bike to Work Day for her bicycling advocacy efforts.
“I was surprised," said Gomez-Feliciano. “I found
out that a lot of people I respect have received this award.”
Gomez-Feliciano, also the vice president of the
Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail board of directors, became
involved with bicycling advocacy when the Logan
Square Neighborhood Association became part of the national
grant Active
Living By Design.
The Logan Square Neighborhood Association was eager to extend its
programming to include active living.
“We thought it was going to be a natural progression for our
organization to get involved with cycling and walking because our
mission is to improve and preserve the quality of life for the Logan
Square community,” Gomez-Feliciano said.
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| Lucy Gomez-Feliciano accepts the
Mayor Daley’s Bicycling Advisory Individual Award from
Luanne Hamilton. |
As the coordinator of the Active Living Logan Square partnership,
Gomez-Feliciano oversees the activities of several programs, including
the installation of bike racks in schools,
Go Healthy! Logan Square, which uses individual coaching to
help families reduce their car travel two times per week, Junior
Bicycle Ambassadors and the Sunday Parkways.
Within a few years, there have already been positive outcomes from
these programs.
In the three years that the Junior Bicycling Ambassadors program
has run, 75 Logan Square youth have gained teamwork and leadership
skills that prepare them for success in any job field. After the
installation of bike racks in schools, the number of children bicycling
to school has steadily increased, she said. The goal is to expand
these programs to 10 schools in Logan Square.
“We’re trying to catch people at a young age,”
said Gomez-Feliciano. Through these projects, she hopes to strengthen
bonds between Logan Square residents. “Part of our work is
to build community. (These) projects give opportunities for people
to take ownership of public spaces and create spaces where people
can interact and be physically active.”
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