Which two Anchorage organizations were designated 'Bike Friendly Businesses' by the League of American Bicyclists?
The League of American Bicyclists announced that the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) and Green Star, Inc. received Bike Friendly Business designations at the gold and bronze levels, respectively. The League made the announcement from the Interbike International Trade Show in Las Vegas on September 24, 2009. The award recognizes organizations for using education, encouragement, engineering and evaluation to promote the use of bikes by employees and customers. The Award program began in 2008 with the designation of 13 organizations as Bike Friendly Businesses.
ANTHC supports bicycle commuting among employees with shower facilities, secure bike parking, on-site safety clinics and tune-ups. On Anchorage Bike to Work Day the campus hosted coffee and treats for cyclists in the morning with live radio coverage. In the evening a pizza party with bluegrass band was hosted for Anchorage bicycle commuters. More than 300 ANTHC employees participated in Anchorage Bike to Work Day 2009, the largest team in as many years. Employees designed, built and delivered their ‘bike barn’ for bike valet services to the Park Strip for July 4th activities.
As part of their Air Quality Business Education grant from the Municipal Health Department, Green Star, Inc. promoted Bike to Work Day to the Anchorage Business community. Green Star co-sponsored bike maintenance and skills classes with REI to encourage bicycle commuting. They collected and distributed businesses donations for drawings, and registered 2,334 participants. Green Star also distributed Bike to Work tee-shirts, sponsored by the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, among 198 registered teams via team drawings. To facilitate cycling by Green Star employees, the non-profit maintains an ‘office bike’ for short trips during the work day as well as bike tools for use by their bicycle commuters at the office. Green Star’s application as a Bike Friendly Business was done in part to better understand the process in order to help Green Star awardees make their businesses more bike friendly for customers and employees.
The League has a current membership of 300,000 affiliated cyclists, including 25,000 individuals and 700 affiliated organizations. They began in 1880 as the League of American Wheelmen to promote paving roadways for bicycle use.
5th Annual Bike to Work Week May, 2009 Outpaces 2008! 
2,334 registered riders in 2009 (918 in 2008)
198 workplace teams in 2009 (112 in 2008)
688 survey participants in 2009 (534 in 2008)
0.34" rain, 15 mph wind in 2009 (you lose some!)