Communication, cooperation drive Bridge Day success

Oct. 2—It takes a village to raise a Bridge Day.

Becky Sullivan, chair of the Bridge Day Commission and executive director of the New River Gorge CVB/Fayette County Chamber of Commerce, says the success of the enduring event boils down to a simple concept.

"The people and our love for celebrating our state, especially our little piece of Almost Heaven," she said recently.

But, there's more. Much more.

What has kept the massive Bridge Day undertaking going all these years?

"Pulling off an event of this size with good communication and safety and security for all of the spectators and attendees (is critical)," Sullivan said. Monthly planning meetings of the supervising Bridge Day Commission iron out most of the behind-the-scenes details which the public might not even consider, she noted. Also, social media accounts are engaged in reaching out to and interacting with the public about the event. "Good communication is key for an event of this size."

Tim Naylor, executive assistant of the New River Gorge CVB/Fayette County Chamber of Commerce, said he has tried to embrace some more of the Bridge Day work for the three-person CVB staff recently. One of his main areas of focus is coordinating the vendors who line the crowded pathway selling their wares or offering information or activities on Bridge Day.

"We've got a lot of new people this year; probably 35 to 40 percent are new," said Naylor. "I think the national park designation brought the word out to people who had never really heard about Bridge Day before."

Over 200 vendors are registered for the 2023 event, and there is no more room in the inn, he said.

"It's challenging," Naylor said. "I tried to get a head start on it this year." Directing returning vendors to their normal spots is a priority, he noted.

"I think the biggest challenge is making sure we don't have too many food vendors across from each other that clog the walkways, ... and also making sure you don't have two of the same type of vendors real close to each other, so everybody has a fair opportunity."

Naylor says the vendors are very important to the success of Bridge Day. "The majority of the people are coming to see the BASE jumpers, and the vendors are just an added bonus. But, from a behind-the-scenes standpoint, without the vendors buying their spaces and paying for their booths, we don't have the money to pay for law enforcement, gas for the shuttle buses, etc. So I think the vendor booths are what really finance Bridge Day more so than anything else."

Dave Williams, Rte. 19 supervisor for the West Virginia Division of Highways, is in his first year of being the WVDOH representative on the legislative-mandated Bridge Day Commission. He has been with the DOH for 19 years and has overseen U.S. Rte. 19 operations for the past five years.

He opines that "just everything" makes Bridge Day tick.

"People like to get out," Williams said prior to the Aug. 16 BDC meeting.

While folks like to walk across the bridge, Bridge Day is not a walk in the park for the DOH crew, Williams admits.

"Usually at the beginning of October, we start preparation, making sure it's cut, that the roads are fixed and everything, cones set up and traffic control. But mostly our main work is the day of Bridge Day when we do traffic control, moving the trash (and other tasks)."

The Bridge Day Commission is the mastermind for planning the event each year. It involves representatives from several local agencies, as well as advisory personnel. There are six voting members: chamber of commerce, county commission, sheriff's department, State Police, WV DOH and Fayetteville. Six advisory members represent the National Park Service, rappel, BASE jumping, vendors, emergency services and regional tourism.

In addition to the BDC, law enforcement agencies have their own committees and communicate year-round about the event, Sullivan said. "Everybody's got kind of their nuts and bolts of their duties for Bridge Day."

Sullivan says her volunteer email list includes about 80 people, and that includes individuals who set out roadway markers and flags, give out directions for parking and shuttles, volunteers at vendor parking lots (starting at 5 a.m. Saturday) and volunteers at the chamber of commerce's retail Bridge Day booths which feature official Bridge Day souvenirs. "So we kind of have volunteers kind of spread out throughout the whole event." Active Southern West Virginia also has volunteers, as well as other organizations.

"Bridge Day is definitely a community-wide supported event," Sullivan said.

Keeping the bridge and event attendees safe and traffic flowing as reasonably as possible, law enforcement personnel from WV State Police, Town of Fayetteville and Fayette County Sheriff's Department numbered 88 in 2022, Sullivan said.

In addition, fire departments, river rescue, vertical rope rescue, emergency management and ambulance and emergency medical personnel are among the others that have a large presence. The FBI and National Park Service also have Bridge Day crews.

Benjy Simpson, the longtime director of the Bridge Day rappel and high line, stepped aside prior to Bridge Day 2023 and is being replaced by his son, Benjy Simpson III, and Cindy Martel, as they will guide this year's rappel activities.

The engineering marvel that is the New River Gorge Bridge itself is the centerpiece attraction, the elder Simpson says, and the annual Bridge Day festival branches out from that.

"The bridge brings people," said Simpson, who began overseeing the rappel in 1992 with his company, Passages to Adventure. "Anybody associated with West Virginia has heard or seen or driven the bridge, and everybody knows about it.

"It's the main thruway between Toronto and Miami. Everybody comes through here."

Simpson said that the community has seemingly embraced the event more than in the past. "Since the bridge is here, we should accept what it can do for us," he said.

According to Sullivan, the chamber of commerce receives grant funding from the West Virginia Division of Arts, Culture & History in the amount of $23,762 annually. Funding to cover the expenses for Bridge Day comes from sponsorships, Into the Gorge tickets, vendor booth registrations, BASE jumper registration and shuttle parking lots.

"Once all Bridge Day bills are paid and if there is a profit, the Chamber shares a portion with the non-profit organizations who help Bridge Day with set up and parking lots," Sullivan said.

Expenses include safety, security, sanitation, transportation, equipment rentals, advertising, signage, event materials, operating office equipment, insurance, permitting fees and more.

The 2023 Bridge Day event, the 44th festival, is fueled by Monster Energy. Other sponsors include Adventures on the Gorge, US Army, Visit Southern WV, WV Hive, New River Gorge Regional Development Authority, Hampton Farms, WV Tourism, Enel North America, Pendleton Community Bank, Appalachian Power, Gino's/Tudor's, Moving Mountains Recovery, Trulieve, Fayette County National Bank, Bush + Ramirez, Ace Adventure Resort, River Expeditions, United Bank, Lost Appalachia, Nature Valley and Nikon.

Tabitha Stover, executive director of the Historic Fayetteville Convention and Visitors Bureau, says, "I don't think any other place could pull off Bridge Day like our community because we are so tight knit and folks are so dedicated to it."

Stover's CVB annually operates the Bridge Day Chili Cook off on the Saturday afternoon of Bridge Day. "We are only a tiny mechanism of Bridge Day with the cook off," she said. "Becky at the Fayette County Chamber and NRG CVB, along with her team, pull the event off like a fine-oiled machine.

"It's kind of mind blowing all the different organizations that come together to pull off an event of that magnitude, but Becky Sullivan is the captain of that ship and she does a wonderful job."

The Taste of Bridge Day, which occurs on the Friday evening before Bridge Day, has long been a staple of the larger overall event and contributed much to the festival's success.

According to representative Mandy Wriston, the event is coordinated as a group effort by the Canyon Rim Rotary Club. "This is our largest fundraiser that, in turn, supports in large part the Fayette County Toy Fund," Wriston said. "The event works very similar to Official Bridge Day. That is, all volunteers, community members and businesses.

"The chamber office gives us permission to hold the event and to piggy back off of the Official Bridge Day website, PR and marketing, and the use of the name. Our club's part is to solicit food, arts and craft vendors as well as judges."

"Adventures on the Gorge has always been our gracious host," she added. "AOTG donates the use of their facilities. Their staff also lend a hand leading up to and the day of the event. We have volunteers who help with on-site ticket sales, parking, questions, set up and tear down. Other members of the community donate monetarily and with services (sponsors).

"In short, what makes the event work is the community working together as a team."

"Bridge Day is successful for the same reason, the volunteers and the community," Wriston, herself a former Fayette chamber/New River Gorge CVB staffer, explained. "When I worked at the chamber from 2012-2019, there were only two full-time employees who coordinated Official Bridge Day. Now there are three.

"Most people don't realize that. A lot of people assumed we were this huge office like the state tourism office or the lottery office. During the months of September and October, we worked as hard and fast as we could and some days that still wasn't enough.

"Official Bridge Day has a multitude of moving parts. It's too much for one person or one organization. It takes every single person represented on the commission as well as community volunteers, National Park Service, board of education, and the BASE and rappel communities to successfully pull off the state's largest one-day festival. Those are just some of the big players."

Eve West, chief of interpretation, visitor services and cultural resources for the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, Bluestone National Scenic River and Gauley River National Recreation Area, echoes some of the same sentiments on why Bridge Day continues to be the success it is.

"The area itself and time of year, when the foliage is typically at its peak, brings people in, I feel sure, but I think the uniqueness of the event itself is a huge draw," she said. "The fact that out-of-state visitors are attracted to and fascinated by the event make it something recognizable on a national and international scale.

"And it's, of course, the only place and time you can legally BASE jump and land in what is now a national park."

"Bridge Day is not our event, but we are heavily involved in that we issue the special use permit that allow jumpers to land in the park," West continued.

"As an event itself, it gives us, like everyone else who's working it, the opportunity to interact with a lot more visitors in a concentrated space and time, and introduce any first-time visitors to one of the richest natural and cultural spaces in the U.S. Interestingly enough, we're actually busier in the Canyon Rim Visitor Center the days leading up to and the day after Bridge Day than we are on the day itself, when everyone's outside watching the jumpers.

Bridge Day is indeed a hectic day for National Park Service employees, as it is with many others.

"I'm not sure of the exact number but most all of the front-line staff work that day in all work groups, maintenance, resource and visitor protection, and interpretation," West said. "Duties change a little in that we're more focused on the bridge with river patrols underneath, public information officers stationed below at Fayette Station and on top at Canyon Rim, security staff scattered around the site.

"And then, of course, we still have the rest of the park to run also, so staff working at Thurmond, Grandview and Sandstone. It's a busy day, and a long day, but a fun day. Except for some who aren't morning people who have to get up and around to their duty stations before the bridge closes, of course."

For more on Bridge Day, which is a registered trademark of the Bridge Day Commission, visit www.officialbridgeday.com.

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