ARLINGTON – For Mark Everett, volunteering and making Arlington a better community are as second nature as riding a bike.

As owner of Arlington Velo Sport and a Downtown Arlington Business Association member since opening his bike center on Olympic Avenue in 2007, Everett has freely given his time and energy to a variety of event and initiatives.

For his efforts, he was presented with the Mayor’s Volunteer Award for the month of May at the Arlington City Council meeting on Monday.

“Mark is known for ‘making it happen’ with his tireless contribution of participation, ideas and just plain hard work,” Mayor Barb Tolbert said. “We are all stewards of our community tradition of outreach and inclusiveness, and Mark embodies that.”

Over the past couple of years, Everett has been involved with the creation of the tool library, pocket parks and downtown beautification efforts that were essential goals with the city’s Community Revitalization Plan. As a business owner, he welcomed the advice of the plan’s merchandising consultants to reconfigure his showroom and storefront in a way that created more buzz with window shoppers.

Most recently, Everett became involved with ensuring that the community had a meaningful and respectful way to commemorate the tragic landslide with the Ride to Remember Oso. He was also instrumental in the related JoJo Trail Ride the same day, a tribute to a young bicycle-riding boy who was killed in the slide.Everett also organizes a free weekly ride on the Centennial Trail less than a block away from his bike shop.

Everett said of the recognition, “It’s very humbling, and we’re blessed that a lot of people in town are very giving.”

In the form nominating Everett, a reference wrote, “Mark is the kind of guy who helped build Arlington in the first place,” and the community is fortunate to have him as a member.