Friends of Rapid City Parks Board is relaunching the board with new officers and a NEW annual event!
The relaunch will focus on a new annual Greenway Day(s) Community Event for one of the longest continuous park’s system in the country.
The mission of FRCP shall include the annual Greenway Day(s) Event and continue the importance of advocacy for building development to remain outside of the floodplain boundaries in the City of Rapid City Greenway. The advocacy for not building in the floodplain is to never repeat the tragedy of the 239 lives lost in the 1972 Flood.
One of the nation’s deadliest floods happened in Rapid City on the evening of June 9, 1972 that killed 238 people. It is the goal of the FRCP Board to always commemorate those victims by encouraging their stories to be gathered through programming offered by the Rapid City Public Library and the Journey Museum.
The Greenway is a unique and priceless outdoor space that links 10 miles of bike path as an icon of our city. There are over thirty City of Rapid City Parks along the greenway and throughout the city for all generations!
Greta Chapman, Board Chair
Greta has been an avid outdoors person starting at the early age of five sliding down Arizona sandhills with her two older brothers. She grew up in National Parks with her father as a Park Engineer and her published journalist mother. Rapid City is the last stop on the trail with her husband Harry, sons Sam and Max, granddaughter family Jayden, Laura and Kent, and many friends in South Dakota and winters in Arizona.
Mike Albin, Board Vice Chair
Mike is owner of Black HIlls Runnings Company and when not in the store is burning up the road as a long distance runner.
Lindsay Frankenfeld, Board Secretary
Lindsay grew up in Rapid City where she used to go tubing down Rapid Creek as a kid. She lived away for about ten years (in Portland, OR, Hokkaido, Japan, and Denver, CO), and returned; she loves the accessible trails and outdoor activities in the Black Hills, and is especially grateful for the greenway parkland in Rapid City, where she has spent hundreds of hours walking, running, and biking. Lindsay is a grant writer and Title III specialist for Black Hills Special Services Cooperative.
Chris Stover, Board Member
Chris grew up in Rapid City and is an avid outdoors person. He is also the person passionate about organizing the Rapid Creek Cleanups that bring many people out in preservation and respect of the greenway. Chris works for the Black Hills National Forest.
Nicole Uhre Balk, Board Member
Nicole was raised in the Black Hills and has always cherished the outdoor activities the region offers, including hiking, biking, skiing, and backpacking. Her passion for the outdoors motivated her to pursue a degree in Biology, leading her to a fulfilling career teaching middle and high school Biology for 13 years, with some Computer Science sprinkled in. Nicole’s teaching journey has spanned the length of Interstate 90, from Tacoma, Washington, to Boston, Massachusetts. Despite her travels, she finds herself repeatedly drawn back to her roots in Rapid City, where she currently works at Technology and Innovation in Education (TIE). Outside of work, Nicole enjoys spending time with her partner, Forest, and their two pampered pugs, Pixel and Qubit.
Steve McCarthy, Emeritus and Co-Founder
Steve launched Friends of Rapid City Parks in 2010 in response to development taking place in the Greenway. His vision continues to influence and impact over 10 miles of Greenway throughout the city to honor the lives lost and celebrate the priceless outdoors icon.