Your Boots Are Made For Walkin' - Your Bike Is Made For Drivin'

Did you check out re:TH!NK’s booth at Country USA? 
If you did not, then you missed out on a fun time!

Hello! I am a guest blogger for the next couple weeks. My name is Sarahjean and I am the AHEC intern working at the Health Department. My main focus for this internship is gathering data for the Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan. AHEC is the Area Health Education Center and part of what they do is place college students that are interested in the public health field into an 8 week long internship at health departments and health clinics. As part of my internship I was able to go to CUSA and talk with people to gather information for the Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan.

At Country USA, over a thousand people took advantage of the opportunity to try a slushie that was made on the bike blender! We also had a Mad Libs Contest where people had the opportunity to win a gift card. All they had to do was fill in the blanks for this sentence:

I wish I could (bike/walk) to a (real place, location, destination) but I can’t because (barrier/reason why not…give examples). We had 100 people fill out a Mad Lib with some really great responses!  

We also had a survey, which was completed by over 200 people! The data collected from the survey will be used in the bicycle and pedestrian plan to make improvements for walkers/bicyclists. In addition to the survey, we also had a map that people could mark where they would like to see improvements and connecting routes. 

Winnebago County is in the beginning stages of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan. Part of the plan is to create safer routes for walkers/bicyclists as well as create connections between destinations. Our booth at CUSA was a great way to gather some helpful information from the people that will benefit from the plan! If you have not filled out a survey, we would greatly appreciate you spending a couple minutes and filling it out http://goo.gl/forms/I94G70Zv0s .