Thanks for the support
Last weekend we setup the booth at the Eagle Outside Festival so we could spread the word about what we've been up to and help point people in the right direction with their demo bike. It was a great two days and I'd really like to first thank the volunteers that helped setup and man the booth for the two day event. Each volunteer worked 2 hours shifts, and some choose to work multiple shifts or stay late and help out when things got busy. HTC is 100% volunteer run and without all the awesome local trail enthusiasts helping out, there's no way we could have the impact we do, so thanks:
Laura Turitz, Stephanie Fuller-Tadlock, Drew Stewart, John Shipp, Chris Gallegos, Caren Davis, Dan Lambert, Stefan Hiatt, and Amy Cassidy.
If you would like to get involved, keep an eye on our calendar of events and your email inbox for upcoming opportunities to help out. We're also planning to leverage our new online membership and setup communication channels there, so stay tuned. More news to come on that front.
Lastly, we need volunteers of all types, shapes, and sizes. If you've got experience of any kind that could be helpful, we'd love to have you. It's not all about throwing dirt around on trail days. We are always looking for help with things like writing contracts and RFPs, applying for grants, social media outreach, photography, logistics, and just about anything else a well oiled business would need, so feel free to contact us with ideas.
Another goal for the weekend was fund raising for upcoming projects. It turns out planning, building, and maintaining trails isn't cheap. Like any other year we sold socks, patches, and maps as well as asked for donations at the booth. People were generous as usual, so keep an eye out for those socks on the trail and tell the person wearing them thanks for supporting local trail efforts. What you may not have known, however, is that if you were demoing bikes this year, you were supporting ongoing trail building efforts with you $10 donation. That's right, ALL of the money that was collected from bike demos this year will be going directly to the Hardscrabble Trails Coalition and directly to upcoming trail projects, maintenance, paying for surveys, archaeologist studies, botanist studies, buying tools, renting equipment, and all of the other miscellaneous costs that come along with building world class single track. For the full story on the bike demo program, I'd encourage you to check out the "All Trails Start Here", article in the Vail Daily.
All in all, it was a great weekend and many thanks are in order to the companies and Town of Eagle that make this event possible. Come stop by and chat next time.
- Rob