Kate and Dan Cooney at the 75 mile start line of the Watershed Ride in 2021

Positive juju. “My favorite part of the Watershed Ride is once we’ve figured out logistics and we have our team’s bikes at the starting line. There’s such great energy before it starts, everyone wishing each other well. Interacting with other teams you can feel that we are in this thing together. Really positive juju. It’s a lot of fun.”

Favorite rides. “I like to cycle anywhere there is water. As a kid, every car summer car ride after dinner ended up with an ice cream cone at a dock, boatyard or beach – every time we ended up looking out at the water and I guess that’s a deep groove in my brain. One of my favorite rides is taking a short trip to Kittansett, looking out over outer Sippican Harbor and Bird Island. I like to see what the breeze is doing and noticing which boats are out.”

Joining forces. “We have a great team and we have a lot of fun. The camaraderie, the funny, snarky and mutually encouraging email strings, it’s all people I care about and love to ride with. This year, we’re combining with the other Marion-based team, the mighty and unstoppable Sail Bags. Many of us have known one another for over 40 years. We always gave each other good-natured ribbing and were naturally competitive. They have fun and raise a lot of money. They’re all great people who we love, so it made sense to join forces and see what we can do together.”

Vital work. “The Coalition is an incredibly capable group of people who happen to be great humans. They get important things done. I can only speak for myself but you can’t separate the Town of Marion and Buzzards Bay. For me, the harbor and the Bay are why we live here. The issues they work on are paramount to the local environment and planet. It makes us feel a little bit better knowing we have this incredible local organization on watch.”

Dan Cooney is a High-Stakes Presentation Coach, Principal at The Cooney Company, LLC, and a member of the Buzzards Bay Coalition Leadership Council.