On the heels of a very successful 2018 Tour des Trees in Ohio, TREE Fund is pleased to announce that next year’s Tour will be held from
September 15 to September 21, 2019, with a planned hub in Nashville, and a route that will take our riders through Kentucky and Tennessee. ISA’s Southern and Kentucky Chapters will jointly be collaborating with TREE Fund on the 27
th annual staging of our most important community engagement event, with our gratitude for their commitment to our cause.
After three particularly long Tours in a row (580, 560 and 620 miles), future route designs will have a target distance of ~425 miles over five full days of riding, slightly shortening the travel commitment required to participate in the event. Next year's opening check-in and dinner will be on Sunday afternoon/evening, September 15
th, with a closing dinner celebration on Friday the 20
th followed by check-out and bike shipping on the morning of Saturday, September 21
st. A full route announcement will be made in December 2018, and registration to ride the Tour will open in early 2019.
Full-time riders will again commit to raising $3,500 for research and education programs, with Tour expenses (including six double occupancy hotel nights, 16 meals for each rider over the course of the Tour, Tour apparel, plus ancillary support and program activities) defrayed by TREE Fund’s generous corporate partners. This structure will again allow funds raised by riders to be fully applied to TREE Fund’s next year budget for new research and education awards, payments on multiple year research grants, and/or endowment gifts to fund future research or education. Part-time and virtual Tour options will again be available.
Our long-time Tour Director Paul Wood of Black Bear Adventures will be returning to plan and manage the 2019 Tour, and he has been engaged for 2020 and 2021 as well; we are in the early planning and conversation stages for those years, with a focus on the Rocky Mountain and Great Plains regions of the country. This event is an extraordinary rolling celebration of community that participants often describe as “life changing” . . . so we hope that this early announcement may inspire veteran and new riders alike to begin planning, training and fundraising for the next installment of our epic annual adventure!
All best regards, and ride on . . .
J. Eric Smith, President and CEO Paul Wood, Owner
TREE Fund Black Bear Adventures
