American Tobacco Trail gets some press from Sunday's News & Observer (Raleigh)

Hey Mark, good job. I should try to follow that with more info about our Roadskater.net Tour to Tanglewood team and inviting cyclists and skaters to this website. We'll see if I get to it. I did write the writer at WUNC and the Boston Globe writer to thank them for their articles about active transportation and adolescent skating and biking benefits, respectively. I think writing the writers would be a good thing to do even if we are just thanking them for covering active transportation.

Hey Mark...great! I think you know where I'd be coming from but just to cover it quickly... The main idea of Roadskater.net is to have a community or team that encourages people to get off the couch and come skate outside with us. We are trying to put our message out where it's searchable via Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask and the others, instead of keeping our conversations on private email lists. We want people to know about those email lists, particularly InlineNC and TriangleSkateClub, both on yahoogroups.com, as slightly less public resources for learning about skating and actually getting out there to do it...no matter how slow or fast. Also, we want people to consider that we have similar needs to cyclists for safe transportation that doesn't require a motorized vehicle (even if we feel we must use one to get to where it's safe). We hope to eventually be classed as bicycles are in terms of the NC Department of Transportation. But the most important thing we do, honestly, and it is not enough, is to make an effort in the weeks and months before the Tour to Tanglewood to raise money to help the people who have Multiple Sclerosis be able to afford treatment, to be educated about how to deal with their disease as a continual effort, and to help with the cost of research. The fact that we skate the Tour is interesting to some, but what is important is the fundraising (and recruiting of more members to the team, which is one of the most effective ways of multiplying your fundraising effect). This is also an area where we are learning and growing and will continue to try to improve. We still haven't cracked the $20,000 mark as a team for a given year, I don't think. We of course do lots of charity ride skates (skrides) where we make a donation the day of the event in order to participate, but our big focus is helping people with MS through the Tour to Tanglewood. Aside from that we just want to share our love of roadskating, and keep ourselves as fit as we can to promote a long and happy life. The 87-mile Athens to Atlanta Roadskate in the fall is a huge motivator for many of us all year (or in my case, much of the year). Glad you got a positive response!