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Bicycling Alliance disbands, distributes funds to local nonprofits

Published 3:30 am Wednesday, November 12, 2025

By Matthew Nash

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Photo courtesy OPBA Olympic Peninsula Bicycle Association (OPBA) members, on top right, Jean Robards and Frank Finney present a grant worth $3,969 to Sequim Cub Scout Pack 4490 led by Pack Leader Fran Olsen and scouts. The Scout Pack also received equipment for the Sequim Bike Rodeo to continue the educational event.
Photo courtesy OPBA/ Tom Coonelly with the Olympic Peninsula Bicycle Association (OPBA) presents Andra Smith, executive director of the Sequim Food Bank, a grant worth $3,969. The OPBA has disbanded and board members agreed to distribute its remaining funds equally to eight area nonprofits.
Sequim Gazette file photo by Michael Dashiell/ At the first Bike Rodeo in 2018, Jillyan Ferguson gets some help from volunteer Joe Cress and Tom Coonelly (foreground) hosted by the Olympic Peninsula Bicycle Alliance and held at the Sequim School District bus/parking lot next to Helen Haller Elementary School. The rodeo course was designed by Brian Watson of Bremerton to help youths learn bicycle skills from first steps — such as balancing on a bike — to advanced ones, such as interacting with road traffic and intersections.
Photo courtesy OPBA/ Tom Coonelly with the Olympic Peninsula Bicycle Association (OPBA) presents Ron Adler with the OTA Singers through Olympic Theatre Arts a grant worth $3,969. The OPBA has disbanded and board members agreed to distribute its remaining funds equally to eight area nonprofits. Adler is an avid cyclist who sustained injuries in a cycling accident in May and was paralyzed from the chest down.
Sequim Gazette file photo by Michael Dashiell/ In May 2018, the Olympic Peninsula Bicycle Alliance (OPBA) held its first Bike Rodeo for children. Pictured is course designer Brian Watson helping Eleanor Jones with the figure eight component of the course. OPBA board members recently voted to disband the group and distribute its funds to eight area nonprofits. Sequim Cub Scout Pack 4490 received a grant and equipment to continue the Bike Rodeo.

Following years of bike rodeos, bike repair workshops, an educational cycling website, and helping the Tour de Lavender grow, the Olympic Peninsula Bicycling Alliance (OPBA) has disbanded.

The all-volunteer, nonprofit group started in 2017 by Ken Stringer and other local bike enthusiasts to promote bicycling, bicycle safety, and advocate for bicycle-safe and bicycle-friendly roads and communities on the Olympic Peninsula.

OPBA board member Tom Coonelly said they had upwards of 70 members with multiple events a year, but people have either moved on and/or don’t have enough energy to continue the events on their own.

As the group formalized plans to disband, board members agreed to grant OPBA’s remaining funds to eight organizations. They’ll each receive $3,969.

Groups/efforts include the Joe Rantz Rotary Youth Fund through the Sequim Sunrise Rotary Foundation, Olympic Discovery Trail through the Peninsula Trails Coalition, Olympic Theater Arts’ OTA Singers, The Recyclery of Jefferson County, the Boys and Girls Club of the Olympic Peninsula, Sequim Food Bank, Sequim Wheelers, and Sequim Cub Scout pack 4490.

“I feel like we really made a difference,” Coonelly said.

“Ken Stringer (a former Gazette columnist of ‘Cycling Around’) was the driving force, and we had an incredible website that showed rides all over the peninsula.”

He said due to costs, the site was taken down.

OPBA also developed and conducted the first local Bike Rodeo for elementary school children in Sequim in 2018 using the League of American Bicyclists’ model.

“It was pretty amazing on a decent day with a bunch of kids riding around to see the progress they’d make in just an hour,” Coonelly said.

The Bike Rodeo package and equipment has been transferred to the Cub Scout Pack 4490 to continue to produce the event, he said.

OPBA sponsored bike safety classes in Sequim too.

Coonelly said their greatest accomplishment was development of the Tour de Lavender bike ride though.

Conceptualized by Dan and Janet Abbott, owners of George Washington Inn/Washington Lavender, the event started in 2013 to promote Sequim’s lavender farms and encourage cycle tourism to the area.

OPBA went on to operate the Tour de Lavender and eventually handed it off to the Peninsula Trails Coalition as a major cycling fundraising event. Last summer, more than 1,100 riders participated.

Coonelly said the ride grew larger than OPBA organizers felt comfortable handling, so it was transferred to the Peninsula Trails Coalition.

For more information about the Aug. 1, 2026 Tour de Lavender, visit https://tourdelavender.com.

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