MTB Equity Wrap Up for 2021
Culture Seed MTB Outings
5 Outings, 3 Cohorts, and 2 locations!
What is the Brave Endeavors - CultureSeed partnership? CultureSeed is a non profit based in White Salmon, WA that provides underserved youth with outdoor immersion and mentorship opportunities in the Columbia River Gorge area. During the height of the pandemic, Brave Endeavors and Hood River Mountain Bike Adventures reached out to CultureSeed to start a MTB program. Brave Endeavors provides the coaching and facilitation and Hood River Mountain Bike Adventures provides the bikes and on trail assistance. The first outing took place October of 2020, and despite a few hiccups like not having enough bikes and feeling like we were herding cats, it was a huge success! Overall kids learned, experienced something new, and all parties decided to expand the program for 2021. We brought Eric Neely from SRAM on board, and planned 5 outings for 2021 with the goal to provide more undeserved youth the opportunity to ride bikes. We asked the community to help raise $7K to run the 5 outings and the community responded! We received two large donations, one from Hood River Area Trail Stewards (HRATS) and one from an anonymous donor and you, the community, raised the rest. So where did all that money go?
Photo by Greg Galliano
Each outing involves a large amount of coordination and multiple touch points. The CultureSeed program director, Asnoldo Benitez, must communicate with each family to determine level of involvement and commitment, arrange transport, communicate with mentors, and secure food. High end bike rentals are expensive and we size each bike to a youth or mentor to ensure the best possible experience. During 2021, we offered 5 different MTB outings: Three outings with the Klickitat cohort, one with the newer Skamania cohort, and one with the NORCOR (Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facility) cohort. Our first outing was along the Klickitat trail in Lyle, WA and the other four took place at Post Canyon in Hood River. A few highlights:
Over 25 Youth had the chance to ride mountain bikes!
One girl overcame her fear of relying on the brakes. When she was in 2nd grade she hopped on her bike and upon trying to stop at the end of a long hill found her brake cables had been cut by her sisters who were mad at her. The girl suffered a major crash and hadn’t been back on a bike since.
First outing with a group from NORCOR. The kids were really nervous at the start, and by the end we could barely get them off the bikes!
Continual work with the Klickitat cohort. We’ve offered 4 outings with the Klickitat cohort and watched as the youth have become more comfortable both on bikes and with us. They have opened up and progressed a lot with their riding!
Photo by Eric Neely
On a personal note, it’s felt really meaningful to connect with a population I don’t typically serve and to collaborate with Greg, Eric, and Asnoldo on a shared vision: to enhance MTB opportunities for underserved youth.
We plan to continue the program into 2022 and offer more kids the opportunity to ride mountain bikes! The back of CultureSeed’s shirts reads, Culture Seed is Village Work, and each outing truly is a collaboration of effort, resources, and energy. A special thank you goes to Michelle Morelos and Melanie Strong for their on trail and behind the scenes support and all the CultureSeed mentors - you truly make a difference! If you made a donation to the MTB Equity drive this past year, Thank You! If you missed the chance to donate, you can do so HERE. CultureSeed is currently fundraising for a van. Transport is one of the top barriers to outdoor access and CultureSeed is looking to purchase a used van to help facilitate ease of transport for their youth to outdoor excursions!