The Chainlink

Planning for a Friday Morning Memorial for Neill Townsend to Raise Awareness about Dooring and Sharing the Road

****************************************************************

IMPORTANT NOTE

The date for the memorial has been changed to FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19TH.
We will meet from 8-8:30 am at the northwest corner of Wells and Oak Streets.

Here is the link to the event page.

****************************************************************

This is a new discussion based off of one of the threads of conversations in the discussion "Bicyclist killed at Oak & Wells Friday AM". Some folks were on board with the idea of holding a memorial on the morning of Friday, October 19th around the time the accident occurred, which would create the opportunity for it to serve as a chance to raise awareness about dooring and sharing the road at a high traffic time. Several people made good suggestions there. They are copied and pasted in a reply below.

If you have any suggestions or you're willing to help out, please comment here.

Once details have been worked out, I'll post it as an event. 

Views: 5517

Replies are closed for this discussion.

Replies to This Discussion

Hi there, 

Thanks again for coordinating all of this.  This is Neill's friend and co-worker.  We've worked with his family on the sign and will be bringing it for the bike tomorrow.  Also, we've printed up some static cling stickers that we'd like to distribute to motorists on Wells that are geared towards looking out for cyclists before opening your car door.  We've also picked up some anti-dooring flyers from the CDOT and would love everyone's help in distributing them also.  Most of the crew from Neill's workplace at MINIMAL, Inc. will be in attendance, as well as his brother who will be driving in from Kentucky for the memorial.  Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is anything else I can help with.

Best, 
Melinda

773-398-1926

melinda@mnml.com

Also - what is the route for the post-memorial ride?

Melissa M said:

Thank you, Duppie and Gerry for organizing the ghostbike, and for arranging for the installation of to coincide with the memorial.

I never heard back from the assistant principal at Payton, so I looked up contacts at Salazar Elementary and will email them tomorrow...or tonight, maybe. I won't be sleeping, so at some point they'll just slide into one another.

I can also look back through and find the folks who are friends of Neill and Clint's mom and email them to see if they or the family want to say a few words.

As for stuff to be printed and brought: 
I think Kristy Lapidus said her boss was going to let her print copies of the quarter page flyer there, and Bliss had offered to print some. (Thanks again to the two of you for designing these!)

I suggest that anyone who can go ahead and print up a few of the quarter pagers, cut 'em to the right size and bring 'em along. Here's the link Bliss provided to the two page pdf version- remember to print so that the fact sheet is on the back of the visual.

What to wear:

Not sure. Perhaps we could wear black arm bands? We could keep them on all day.

Maybe it would be good to come up with an agenda so that we know how things will proceed. I'll put something together once I get in touch with the friends and family of Neill and Clint and will post it on the event page.

We will see you tomorrow Mark at 7:15, and the rest of you at the memorial. 

Mark said:

I will be there.  Thanks, Julie.

Julie Hochstadter said:

if anyone wants to ride down together, a group of us are meeting at 7:15 at dunkin donuts on lawrence and hermitage.

In Northwest Ohio and thinking of you all.

Melissa and everyone,

Extremely well done.  And someone was watching over us--the rain held off.

Thank you for your efforts.

agreed.  Wonderful event, Melissa M, you spoke beautifully even with 5 cameras and microphones in your face.

Thank you everyone who came out and helped organize the event.  His family was very touched.

Lisa Curcio said:

Melissa and everyone,

Extremely well done.  And someone was watching over us--the rain held off.

Thank you for your efforts.

Thanks to everyone who was part of today's event.  And thanks to Mother Nature for holding back the storm.  I hope that the media coverage (which included a student reporter from the Walter Payton high school newspaper) will help get the word out and start making a difference.

I didn't realize that student was from the school newspaper.  That's wonderful. What a great lesson for the students.  Great experience for them to learn first hand about their surroundings and the tragedy that took Neill from us. 

Anne Alt said:

Thanks to everyone who was part of today's event.  And thanks to Mother Nature for holding back the storm.  I hope that the media coverage (which included a student reporter from the Walter Payton high school newspaper) will help get the word out and start making a difference.

Thanks to Melissa, the ghostbike people, Neill's coworkers, and everyone else for putting this together/attending.  It was a nice tribute to a wonderful friend.  

Thanks Melissa for organizing this. Very well done!

Media coverage of the memorial, with quotes from a few chainlinkers:

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/10/19/bicyclists-killed-in-acciden...

Thanks for putting this memorial/tribute together! It's amazing how the cycling community comes together and rallies during any time of tragedy.

Please mark your calendars for the third Wednesday in May - May 15, 2013 - for the annual Ride of Silence, when cyclists worldwide in their local communities are encouraged to rally together much as we did today - with a global impact! Chicago should host multiple ROS events this upcoming year - to cover the whole city!

who printed the stickers for today?

RSS

© 2008-2016   The Chainlink Community, L.L.C.   Powered by

Disclaimer  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service