Outride Mountain Bike Program
Outride is a non-profit organization that aims to reduce the barriers to cycling for students by providing bikes and programming to elementary schools. At RL Clemitson in School District #73, I volunteered as a guide on multiple mountain bike rides in the spring of 2022 under the guidance of lead teacher Lacey Munden. This is experience was as fun as it was educational! Because I am an avid cyclist and an involved member of the Kamloops cycling community, any chance to share my passion with others is an opportunity I can’t refuse!
Kiddies Korner Daycare
I volunteered 100+ hours at Kiddies Korner Daycare from December 2019 until March 2020. There I acted as a support teacher in their before and after-school program with elementary school-aged children. I helped the teachers set up and implement activities, organize and lead games, and I was lucky enough to join in on a field trip to a local sledding hill and also a field trip to go tubing at Harper Mountain! I am incredibly grateful for this experience as it was my first time working with children. Though I have interacted with kids in my family and of friends in my adult life, I have never done so in a professional setting. I learned so much from the working teachers there and when my time was up, I felt even more assured that I had made the right choice by going into education.
River Beaver Classic
In October 2021 I volunteered at a community mountain bike event called the River Beaver Classic under the guidance of Cheryl Beattie. For this event I organized donation items for a silent auction, created wood medallions for the race winners, ran the beer garden, and acted as a tail sweep in each mountain bike race throughout the weekend. This is an important mountain bike community event in Kamloops as it is a celebratory event in which all of the proceeds go towards maintaining Kamloops’ Bike Ranch. The Bike Ranch is an integral part of Kamloops’ biking culture. It is world-renowned and it is completely free to use. Few spaces as intentional and well-developed as the Bike Ranch exist and in a sport that is notoriously elitist and costly to get into, this space makes mountain biking in Kamloops that much more accessible. People of all ages and backgrounds can be found in this space and what connects them is their love of biking. As I settle more into Kamloops, I only want to contribute more to cultural and community based events such as the River Beaver Classic. It is such a rewarding experience to give back to a biking community that has given me so much.
