Each year the Zombie Bike Ride takes place along the 12 mile Davis Bike Loop, a family friendly, student friendly, everyone friendly route that connects most parts of the city of Davis. See www.zombiebikeparade.com/route.
Our Zombie committee is delighted about improvements to the route each year by the City of Davis, and we're grateful to Gloria Partida for her advocacy for making the Zombie Bike Ride route safer, more enjoyable and easier to navigate.
Within the past 2 years there have been updated vinyl stickers marking the ground of the Davis Bike Loop for navigation at each turn on the route, as well as small metal signs on poles in strategic areas to let riders know they are still on route.
This year the City of Davis Public Works Engineering Department notified us that "the Tulip and Ponteverde intersection for the bike/ped path will likely still be wrapping up construction." bringing to light an improvement project Gloria has advocated for on the redesign of bike paths (or multi-use pahts) on Tulip and Ponteverde for greater safety for riding to school.
Riders need not worry, the Zombie Bike Ride committee has decorated the Davis Bike Loop to easily navigate around the construction.
Those who know Partida know about her love for the most vulnerable members of the Davis community. Over the years, in collaboration, she helped start mainstream education for special needs students in Davis, established a community-based work program for people with disabilities in Davis and founded the Davis Phoenix Coalition, a non-profit to promote inclusion and prevent hate crimes.
Now by becoming a big time sponsor of the Zombie Bike Ride, she is supporting our mission of making bicycling available to everyone, including the elderly (through the Bike Campaign's Cycling Without Age program) and of course children with disabilities, through the Davis Odd Fellow's large donations to event beneficiary, Norcal Trykers.
Norcal Trykers, a non-profit organization, creates custom tricycles for children with special needs, who otherwise would not be able to ride a bicycle or participate in the Zombie Bike Ride. Each tricycle is custom made for a particular child who will finally be able to experience the freedom of going at speed and having the wind in their hair. With the help of sponsors, over our first three years of hosting the Zombie Bike Ride, we have raised nearly $15,000 for Norcal Trykers to create 15 tricycles at about $1,000 each.
Still, we've only covered the tip of the iceberg, when it comes to Gloria's long-time commitment to the Davis community. mPartida is a former mayor, retired scientist, small business owner, founder of a non-profit focused on inclusion, mother, grandmother, and a deeply committed community advocate.
She currently serves on the boards of the Yolo Solano Air Quality Management District and the Yolo county Housing Authority.
Gloria has a long-time passion for building community and caring for the quality of life of the spaces she lives in. As a young mother in Los Angeles, she was part of Mothers of East L.A., a group that advocates for bettering the lives of the underserved in Los Angeles. In 1989 as a single mother of three small children, one with special needs, she moved to Davis determined to better the opportunities for herself and her family. She attended UC Davis and earned a B.S. in Zoology and later worked as a Neurobiologist. Throughout the time she studied and worked to support her family, she advocated for her own and all children in the school system.
As a lab manager at UC Davis, she mentored and advocated for opening opportunities to minorities and women in science. She is first author on several peer reviewed journal articles in the area of neuroscience. In 2016 she ran for the Davis City council. Having received the highest number of votes in that election, she became mayor pro-tem and in 2020 became mayor. Gloria is the first Latinx person elected to the Davis City council. While on the council, she focused on economic development, homeless issues, reimagining policing and ensuring all policies are approached through a lens of equity.
The undead of Davis will continue to show their appreciation of Gloria with social media posts, marketing, and signage along the bike route with Gloria's re-elect campaign logo to fulfill our marketing package to her as a big time sponsor of our Halloweekend festival!
Anyone who wants to sponsor the Zombie Bike Ride is welcome to do so. See our sponsorship tiers at https://www.zombiebikeparade.com/sponsors
