Event Highlight: Duwamish River Bike Tour & Festival

Our Fearless Riders, © 2012 Jon Sharpe

Sixteen curious and cheerful bicyclists toured the South Park and Georgetown neighborhoods on Saturday morning under beautiful blue, sunny skies. The Duwamish River Bike Tour was a great success, and the ensuing Duwamish River Festival was festive indeed! There were wonderful dance troupes representing the diverse cultures who call the area home, free tamales and hot dogs for all, informative tables and exhibits, and fun activities like a bouncing structure and face-painting for the younger attendees. Mayor Mike McGinn even showed up and gave a short speech, saying that while as mayor he wasn't allowed to have a favorite neighborhood, he had to admit to having a special place in his heart for South Park. After spending the day getting to know the neighborhood, I could easily understand why.

CEEH researcher Wes Smith led the pre-festival bike tour, using a map that we created especially for the event (download the PDF here). Among the attendees were CEEH Community Advisory Board member Dennis Chao and CEEH Outreach Director Kelly Edwards. We stopped at various points of interest along the way to learn more about this unique part of Seattle where tribal, residential, and industrial history are so tightly intertwined. CEEH Outreach Manager, Marilyn Hair, and I staffed a table during the festival and enjoyed many great interactions with festival goers. We gave away lots of our new CEEH branded reusable grocery bags - and could have given away many more if we had them. Several people just walked up to the table and asked "so, what is ecogenetics?" - providing us with a great opening to discuss CEEH research and our core message that "ENVIRONMENT + GENES + CHOICES = HEALTH." For us outreach folks, it doesn't get much better than that! 

Visit our Flickr album to see photos from the day's festivities. 

Many thanks to the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition for organizing this great day!

- Jon Sharpe