Volunteers Appreciation Night and Forbidden Druid Draw

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Recently UROC held a volunteer appreciation gathering for all the dedicated volunteers who helped UROC work through another record-breaking year. Held at the Gravity Garage in Cumberland, we acknowledged the trail builders past and present, races and events helpers, Women’s group ride hosts and leaders, and the many hours of hard work that comes from the UROC board of directors. It’s all in the name of good times, riding bikes, and enjoying the thrills of the Cumberland trail network. 

There was a buzz in the room while we recognized the hard work of our volunteer trail builders. There has been some outstanding trail work in recent years. We gave out some fun awards and acknowledged that our trail-building community continues to make our trail network better than ever. 

Trail builders: L to R: Gordon Nettleton, Silas Straathof, Norm Maximick, Tracy Howlett-Cooney, Al Munday, Scott McGregor (kneeling), Curtis Saunders, Cory Gillard, Jeremy Grasby, Tyson Curtin-Nourse, Dougal Browne and Mike Manara.

The UROC Board of Directors has always been a force. Past and present, these folks have put in some hard yards and countless hours of behind-the-scenes work to make land access a reality for Cumberland. The board has always kept UROC going in the right direction while working through the nuances of a typical day in the life of a trail network.  

Past and present directors: Shayla Hall, Mike Tunnah, Adam Silverstein, Alex Blair, Evan Loveless, Jeremy Grasby, Jesse Bone, Mike Manara, Brent Anderson, and Martin Ready. 

Races and Events are just one of the big-ticket items on the annual UROC agenda. The Island Cup XC, the Coaltown Throwdown, the 12hrs of Cumberland, and, the Dodge City Enduro always hear ‘that was the best day ever’ year on year. Our volunteer team continues to bring together the good times and we’re grateful for all their hard work.

L to R: CJ Hendren, Erica Spizawaka, Phil Tripp, Tom Skinner, Mike Tunnah, Ally Greer, and Alex Blair. Not present: Leah Ballin

The women’s rides broke more records for another year running with huge attendance numbers and a wide variety of rides. The women ride leaders return year after year to keep the fun levels high with over 14 evenings through the spring and summer months. 

L to R: MJ Bippes, Ruth Howard, Lesley Bell, Tracy Howlett-Cooney, Lauren LaBossiere, Barbara Milley, Meadow Hazdrova, and Cynthia Lau.

UROC would not survive without its electronic presence via our ever-evolving website. Our membership platform and event registration among other complicated features is all built and monitored by Ben Johnstone of Moa Media. Ben is always willing to help and sees the UROC website as a project he loves to do, we’re never complaining about having this amazing dedicated volunteer helping us keep in touch in this electronic age. Thank you, Ben! 

The UROC Membership Forbidden Druid Draw.

The final acknowledgment of the evening was to Forbidden Bike Company for their generous donation for the third year of a complete bike towards the UROC membership. All membership fees go back into the trail network for upkeep and ongoing maintenance of the trails. With the support of this donation, we gained 2513 UROC members which is a record-breaking year and a great contribution to the trails. 

We held the open prize draw by using a random number generator and corresponding that number with the membership list to find the winner. This year the winner of the Forbidden Druid GX MX was Tom Grimmer of Comox.  Congratulations Tom.