Introducing Delaware's BEST (Bringing Education and Safety Together)

By John and Ceci McCormick, Co-Chairs -- Last November, a small group got together to discuss the advantages of all advocates of active transportation in Delaware (e.g. bicycle, pedestrian, bus transportation, safety, healthy lifestyle) to work together to promote active lifestyles (see Vision Statement below). We discussed the need to understand what the current advocacy efforts were and how to identify people who could organize our efforts.

The initial name of the group, Bicycle Education and Safety Training has changed to Bringing Education and Safety Together. We wanted to keep the initials the same for consistency – B.E.S.T. - but needed to show our interest in collaborating with a broader range of transportation options.

We have been meeting every two months since then to report out to the group on progress made by individuals and to decide on our next steps. Two guiding questions for these meeting are: What are the various advocacy efforts? Who would be responsible for each advocacy effort (component)? For example, Anthony Aglio & Sarah Coakley are Leads on 4^th & 5th Grade bicycle programs.

There are many people on our distribution list who can’t make every meeting but want to stay informed about our progress and are interested in contributing to the success of our group. If you would like to become a part of this effort, please contact Ceci & John McCormick at johnandcecimcc@gmail.com

Vision Statement: Promote bicycling, walking, and public transportation in a way that engages the talents, energies and influence of the various advocacy groups and local, county & state resources, so that our collective efforts are aligned and coordinated, and Delaware’s active transportation initiatives are recognized nationally as a model program.