Every year, EBC recognizes exceptional volunteers who contribute to creating a bike friendly city. The most difficult thing this year was to choose just four award winners out of a long list of worthy nominees who've lent their time, energy, and passion to BikeWorks, You Can Ride 2, The Spoke, promoting cycling, and making human-friendly streets a reality in Edmonton. All of EBC's programs depend on the generosity of volunteers, and in the past year, more than 150 volunteers have contributed over 6200 hours to BikeWorks alone. The following award recipients are but a few of the stand-outs we are honoured to work with.

Keith McIsaac receives the Peter Pal Award for contributions to BikeWorks. Keith was one of the original volunteers who helped open BikeWorks North more than 3 years ago and has been an integral member of the north side team ever since. When BikeWorks North is open and busy, Keith can seemingly be at 3 places at once giving expert direction on bike repairs. After-hours, he spends considerable amounts of time organizing, cleaning, and improving the shop, doing so many of the important things that go overlooked and taken for granted, yet are vital to keeping the shop open. The passion for bicycles Keith brings to EBC also permeates the rest of his life, raising his family car-free, blogging, and participating in many group rides throughout the year.
Michael O'Neill is the recipient of the Ian Helgesen Award for contributions to EBC and cycling in Edmonton. While completing his Master of Urban Planning at McGill University, Michael spent his summer interning for EBC in his hometown, compiling GIS data to help EBC better target its campaigns as well as providing detailed analysis and recommendations on the confounding Bicycle Bottleneck, one of the busiest bike intersections in the city. Not satisfied to work solely in the background, he also contributed significant time volunteering at BikeWorks South.
Brendan Huynh and Thomas Dessein are the co-winners of the Dale Allsopp Award for contributions to BikeWorks. Being a regular BikeWorks volunteer can sometimes be challenging commitment. Brendan and Thomas share in common their consistent commitment as BikeWorks volunteers through the most challenging circumstances, keeping the shops open on Saturdays when the demand for service is highest and the volunteer pool has been the smallest.
Relatively new to the BikeWorks team, Brendan rose to the task of being a key volunteer on many of the busiest shop days of the year, quickly learning the ropes, rapidly expanding his mechanical knowledge and immersing himself into many aspects of Edmonton cycling culture.

Meanwhile at BikeWorks South, Thomas has been the rock solid foundation for the growth of the Saturday team. He greets the Saturday crowds with infinite patience and good humor, always diligent in making sure that everybody gets the advice and help they need. This past spring and summer was particularly challenging as a record number of people were using the shop but our volunteer base had not yet grown in stride, and Thomas played a huge part in helping EBC to meet the demand.
Conrad Nobert receives the Jack Grainge Award for commitment to improving cycling in the broader community. A life long environmental activist, last fall he spearheaded the Edmonton Bike Coalition to raise Edmontonians' voices in favour of prioritizing active transportation in the face of a city budget that allocated $0 to its Active Transportation budget line. With more than 1100 citizens participating in the photomosaic campaign, the Edmonton Bike Coalition grabbed the attention of City Hall, helping convince councillors to vote unanimously in favor of funding a high quality bike route on 102 Ave and funding active transportation to the tune of 20 million dollars. Conrad continues to work towards a building a people-friendly city through a new group, Paths For People.

This year we received more nominations for awards than ever before, so we would like to give honourable mentions to the following individuals who have been indispensable to both EBC and the Edmonton cycling community:

Candace Boettger: for her long term commitment in keeping the Women, Trans & Gender Non-Binary program at BikeWorks South going.
Robert Clinton: for his continued contributions to BikeWorks North.
Rob Drinkwater: for his long term volunteer commitment and being a shining light at BikeWorks North.
Tim Fitzpatrick: for being an invaluable team member at BikeWorks South.
Melanie Harris: for the outstanding skill sets she brings to You Can Ride Two, both as a physiotherapist and administrator.
Aristotelis Kollias: for bringing so much hard work, passion, and fun to BikeWorks South.
Glenn Kubish: for promoting cycling and outdoor living with #coffeeoutside and other initiatives.
Julie Kusiek: for being one of the driving forces behind Queen Alexandra Crossroads.
Nancy Milakovic: for being a dedicated volunteer both at BikeWorks North and on the EBC board.
Jan Przysiezniak: for so much hard work helping BikeWorks South patrons, mentoring volunteers, building & maintaining the shops, and creative thinking.
Jay Smith: for her perspective on so many facets of cycling and active transportation in her Metro column.
Nathan Treloar: for taking on the big job of keeping The Spoke going.
Peter Verboom: for so often making himself available to pick up the slack at BikeWorks South, and now BikeWorks North as well.

Thank-you all.