#bestnine2016
The New Year is here which provides a cue to stop and reflect on the past year, and what a year it was!
OFFICE LIFE
2016 was a year of tremendous growth for ICT, Inc. We added 2 employees, installed 2 new Pacers Bikeshare stations and continually increased and expanded our efforts to maintain the Cultural Trail.
EVENTS
In the spirit of celebrating 2 years – we hosted our second annual Winter Warm Up, an 8 and 4 mile run or walk along the Cultural Trail. The event is hosted at the end of February (brrrrrr!) to bring attention to the Trail being clear of snow and ice year round so everyone can continue using it. We had almost 500 runners in 2016 and we hope you’ll join us in 2017!
The Second Annual Spring Clean was a success with more than 120 people giving their time to beautify the Trail for the warm, busy months, a 25% increase in participation from 2015. We hosted our first Egg Hunt on the Trail over Easter weekend and hosted all of you at our 2 year celebration of Pacers Bikeshare.
VOLUNTEERS
Volunteers are an integral part of our Trail operations and their role in 2016 was incredible!. Between March and November they filled over 400 bags of trash with collected litter, swept all 8 miles of Trail many times over, and cleaned light poles, trash cans, and bollards. In fact, our volunteer hours increased 50% from 2015 to 2016. In total nearly 700 people gave their time and talents to the Trail and our 8 mile connection looks better than ever.
ALONG THE TRAIL
We added 8 new sculptures from Don Gummer’s Back Home Again exhibition and hosted a temporary piece from Chakaia Booker to celebrate the 100th running of the Indy 500.
Community partnerships are so important to what we do at ICT, in 2016, we worked with Department of Public Works to replace duratherm along the Alabama corridor of the Trail.
In 2015 we created a Cultural Trail tour program that offers weekly guided bike tours. These tours, led by trained volunteers feature facts of Indianapolis’ history and discussions on the impact the Trail has had on the city and it’s distinctive Cultural Districts. The tour program has become our fastest growing operation with the number of tours increasing 89% from 2015 and number of participants increasing 175% We look forward to continuing to grow this program that contributes financially to our work. Stay tuned for exciting new tour options in 2017!
Thank you from all of us here at ICT, Inc. for helping to make 2016 our best year yet!