SANDPOINT — When Emily Strizich was moving back to Sandpoint in 2024, the Pend Oreille Pedalers was looking for its next executive director. 

Strizich had experience with trail work from her time in Vermont and said she felt that taking lead of POP would be the culmination of her time in various community roles. While she was helping to raise her third daughter, who was two weeks old at the time, she accepted the position.  

“It was not great timing, but I've been really proud to get to bring them up in this world, and they all love trail work and stuff,” Strizich said. “In fact, my 5-year-old is annoyed that she's not here with me right now. Like, no, it's an interview about trail work, not actual trail work.” 

Strizich has been at the helm of the POP for the last 18 months, bringing a community and inclusive focus to the organization. That effort combined with the construction of nearly 20 miles of new trail and a new trail management plan has earned her the 2026 Professional Award for Parks, Trails, or Conservation from the Idaho Recreation and Parks Association. 

“I'll be traveling to Twin Falls with my three daughters to go receive it. I'm really proud to share that with them, because they've been with me from the jump,” Strizich said. "Not only did I get to be at the center of this really cool kind of cultural phenomenon, but Sandpoint itself, changed the way that land managers and trail builders can work together and create recreation that's sustainable and safe.” 

During her first six months as POP’s executive director, Strizich said she went on a listening tour and came to the conclusion that people and community wanted to be more involved with POP. So, she set out to repair and build new relationships across Sandpoint, which led her to finding unlikely partners in the organization’s trail building: teenagers. 

Strizich said she heard that some teenagers were illegally building trails and instead of chasing them off, she brought them in. She said she leaned on her training as an occupational therapist to build up the teens with a balance of trust and boundaries. 

“I think so often teenagers are dismissed [and told to] sit down, wait your turn,” Strizich said. "That is so crummy when you have things to offer a community and you want to be involved. So, I think honestly, they were really flattered at the end of the day when somebody did empower them.” 

Those teens soon became part of POP’s professional trail building team that truly cared for what they were constructing, Strizich said. While she is stepping down from the executive director role, Strizich said that some of her favorite memories from her time were getting compliments from the teens and seeing their work ethic. 

Strizich described being at a public event, when one of the teenagers approached her to ask for a tool to go fix a trail. While at first she was hesitant, the teen reassured her that he just wanted to fix the trail because it was in rough shape. 

“It was this moment where I realized, like, we really were shifting the paradigm. The maintenance of these trails wasn't somebody else's problem,” Strizich said. "Those trails were ours to care for, suddenly these kids who've got like, enthusiasm and time, they're the ones taking care of it... that's where real change, I think, happens in communities.” 

While Strizich is the one receiving the award, she said that she was only able to accomplish these feats thanks to a strong support group. She said she leaned on long-time trail builder Greg Williams, local business owner Kenny Marquart and trainer Nick Bandy. 

Strizich said that her work developing the revolutionary Trail Risk Management Program with the city of Sandpoint couldn’t have been completed without former city employee Maeve Nevins-Lavtar.  

“Any good work comes back to relationship building and trust building and mutual respect,” Strizich said. “I've been surrounded by incredible people that have helped to uplift me, and that's been reciprocated to help uplift them.” 

As she transitions away from POP, she is focusing on her role as board chair of the Northern Rockies Trail Project. The NRTP is break off of POP’s trail building efforts, which is attempting to connect communities with trails across public lands in the region. 

“It's amazing how this has turned out, and really gratifying and dovetailed into this new role that's bigger with more trust and inspired in us than before,” Strizich said. “It does feel like it's kind of this weird, natural culmination, but I don't know where any of it came from. I kind of feel like the dog that caught the car, because I'm like, ‘Wow, this is incredible.’” 

    POP's building team uses excavators to work on a trail.