LACBC Open House Celebrates 2015 and the Members that Made It Great

On Thursday, December 3rd, we gathered for the 3rd Annual LACBC Open House to celebrate the year 2015! The night featured lots of mingling, photos in our photo booth, great food, beer from Angel City Brewery, and a short program to recognize some of our stellar volunteers. Here are some of the highlights.

LACBC board and staff finally took a group photo with the popular LACBC balloons!

Folks from the Pomona Valley Bicycle Coalition posed in our photobooth by Photo Cube.

Mr. CiclaValley explained to people how he stays #ValleyStrong!

LACBC, CicLAvia, Los Angeles Walks. We saw many familiar faces that work to make Los Angeles a better place to bike and walk.

Thanks to our volunteers that helped out with decorating and set up!

In our program, our Executive Director, Tamika Butler, recognized some other awesome LACBC members that have helped make 2015 a great year through their time, skills, dedication, great ideas, and more. Read on to learn about them.

Maria Sipin, board member of Multicultural Communities for Mobility, and Daniella Alcedo, founder of the Pomona Valley Bicycle Coalition, were presented with the Fresh Idea Award for creating and implementing the

Women Bike, Women Lead program, which aims to increase women’s capacity to become community leaders in the biking and walking movement. Thank you, Maria and Daniella, for taking so much time to plan rides and a workshop and a very helpful toolkit for others to benefit from!

High fives to local chapter Walk Bike Burbank for successfully advocating for Phase II of the Channel Bikeway this year. WBB received the Advocacy Campaign of the Year Award, and Mike Hollis accepted the award on behalf of WBB. Thanks to WBB and all of our local chapters for working to make L.A. County a better place to bike!

Dennis Hindman was recognized as the Counter of the Year for volunteering for 24 

#LABikePedCount shifts this year. He even brought up count forms to turn in. Thank you, Dennis, for being a volunteer we could count on!

Yiao Xie, who has been volunteering in our office since before most LACBC staffer even started working here, was recognized as a Hidden Hero of LACBC! You may not know it, but Yiao has probably sent you a membership packet or input your contact information into our database. Thanks, Yiao, working behind the scenes to make our members and supporters get what they need!

Jason Li was recognized as a longtime Hidden Hero for all the technology support he has provided for LACBC. He’s volunteered with LACBC since the Ron Milam and Joe Linton era (before anyone on the current staff had even started working at LACBC), and we’d probably be communicating with the outside world by carrier pigeon if it weren’t for him. Thanks, Jason, for so calmly solving our technology crises!

Serena Liu was honored as a Hidden Hero for her work documenting the local bike scene through photography and for making bicyclists look so good. (See the photos on this blog to understand what we’re talking about.) This is the one photo on this blog post that was not taken by Serena, and you can tell the difference that Serena makes. Thanks, Serena, for coming to so many events and helping us tell stories better through great visuals.

Lastly, outgoing LACBC board member Greg Laemmle was presented with the Howard Krepack Service to Cycling Award for his years of dedication to LACBC and the bike community. Whether leading a Sunday Funday Ride, being the Team Captain of Team LACBC at Climate Ride, or sponsoring Operation Firefly through the Laemmle Charitable Foundation, Greg has been a committed and inspirational leader that we all look up to! Thank you, Greg, for your years of service and leadership!

Greg will probably tell you that he couldn’t do what he does without his wife, Tish. Tish is a CicLAvia board member, and together they make quite the #bikeLA power couple.

Wayne Ridetime Howard, who could not make it to Open House, was honored as the Ride Leader of the Year for planning and leading four Sunday Funday rides and for playing such an important role as a Ride Marshal in many other rides. Thank you, Wayne, for taking so much time to plan excellent rides that are fun, informative, and safe for our riders.

Kathleen Smith, who was also not able to make it, was recognized as a Hidden Hero for all the work she has done in our LACBC office and for Operation Firefly. Thank you, Kathleen, for always thinking about how to improve the organization, whether it’s putting together first aid kits or getting our office a much-needed pencil sharpener.

Angel City Brewery provided the suds, much to the delight of the Open House attendees. Thanks to Trent from Angel City for coming out!

Thank you to Angel City Brewery for providing and serving the beer, Whole Foods Market DTLA for donating cheese plates, Serena Grace Photography for capturing the night, Photo Cube for running the photobooth, CicLAvia for donating the Instagram contest prize pack, and our awesome volunteers that helped the Open House run!

Plus thanks to all the members and supporters that have made 2015 an exciting year for biking in Los Angeles!

All photos by Serena Grace Photo. Check out more of them on the LACBC Facebook Page!