Join us for the White Center Bike Playground Grand Opening

Saturday, Oct. 1
11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Dick Thurnau Park

Get ready to ride in White Center! We hope you’ll join us on Saturday, Oct. 1 for the grand opening of the new White Center Bike Playground at Dick Thurnau Park. The celebration highlights our partnership—more than a year in the making—with King County Parks and other essential community organizations like the YES! Foundation and the White Center Community Development Association (CDA). Without them, this milestone celebration wouldn’t be possible. So THANK YOU to those good folks and all others who donated time, money and materials to help us bring this bicycling dream park to life!

The idea to build the White Center Bike Playground was born from a partnership with King County Parks. When word of King County’s Youth Sports Facility Grant program came our way in the spring of 2015, we jumped at the chance to dig deeper in our youth and family-based community programming. In particular, we were inspired by the success of the recently expanded Major Taylor Project (MTP), and wanted to build on the program’s success by making bicycling more accessible throughout the region. 

After some initial brainstorming around the Cascade conference table, the concept for a bike playground in White Center was born. King County Parks staff members helped us narrow the field to Dick Thurnau Park, and after receiving a $75,000 grant from the Youth Sports Facility Grant program, plans were quickly underway to renovate the old tennis courts there. 

Our White Center partners have been instrumental in guiding us toward the completion of this project. The White Center CDA played a key role in helping us determine community needs and ideas for programming. Similarly, the YES! Foundation helped guide us in how we might expand on our current programs at the new facility. The YES! Foundation is also a long-time partner of Cascade’s Major Taylor Project, with many MTP students being actively involved in programming there. 

The new Bike Playground will feature a small-scale streetscape (where the old tennis courts used to be) complete with realistic road markings and obstacles, where people can practice riding in a safe and comfortable setting. In the coming year, Cascade will use the new park to offer bicycle camps, community riding events and more. 

Here at Cascade, we’re super excited to see the new White Center Bike Playground come to life. And we couldn’t have done it without the generous support of King County Parks and our White Center community partners.

We hope you’ll join us for this momentous occasion to celebrate and give thanks to everyone who made it possible. See you there!

Opening celebration of the new White Center Bike Playground
Saturday, Oct. 1
11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Dick Thurnau Park
11050 10th Avenue SW
Seattle, WA 98146

Interested in learning about how to support the educational programs and events that keep the new Bike Playground buzzing? Make a donation here or learn more about how your membership supports bicycling across the state of Washington.