Written by Owen Simpson
My school, Oregon Episcopal School, launched a senior capstone project during the last 2.5 weeks of school, and I choose to focus my efforts around spreading the joy of mountain bikes to new communities of kids. This means that instead of attending classes I dedicated my last weeks of school to focus my time on an effort of my choice. With the extra time, I had the opportunity to really dive into this project and make an impact while learning a lot.
Connecting with OES Alumni Ellie Riser, I was able to get connected with the Blazers Boys and Girls Club to bring bikes to their after-school programming. Meeting regularly with great people like Jamarr Lawson and Gabriel Bradford made it easy to figure out the complicated logistics of how we could bring bikes to the program. After some initial conversations with the club and instructor Elaine Bothe, it was clear that partnering with Northwest Trail Alliance would be essential to what we wanted to make happen at the club. Jered Bogli, the president of the alliance, was instrumental in coordinating details surrounding the usage of the thirteen kids’ bikes, insurance information, and information for parents for permission slips that made this project possible. I also want to thank Sean Benesh and Clark Vowels for their help in taking photos and videos during the project.
On our first day, it was very rainy outside so we worked in the gym, starting with letting the kids simply ride as their heart desired! We then introduced some structured practice with cones, ratchet pedaling, slow races, and fast races. As a huge mountain bike rider, I was worried that the kids may be disappointed that we couldn’t go outside the first day we were together, but as soon as I saw the smiles on the kids while they watched us wheel bikes into the gym faces I quickly realized that the location we were riding wasn’t going to be important, rather the stoke and joy of riding together was what truly mattered. Watching the kids be so excited for such a simple activity of riding in circles of the gymnasium actually shifted my own perspective on mountain biking and made me rethink why I drive many hours every weekend to get to “the best” riding destinations.
On our second day at the club, we again started out in the gym and the kids were shredding. We laid out cone courses and placed bean bags on kids heads for balancing practice. We played a few games of foot down before heading outside where we practiced our group riding skills around the block before heading out for our field trip on the third day.
On our third and final day, we met at the Fred Meyers parking lot next to Gateway Green for a warm-up before pedaling to the trails. The kids unloaded the bus with smiles, and photographer Sean Benesh, as well as videographer Clark Vowels, came out to capture the moments. It was a thrilling downhill ride for the kids down the path to the trails! It was amazing to see how overall confidence on the bikes grew during the three days of riding, and the kids were able to use those skills at the park. We started off riding the pump track and progressed to a ride through the forest before heading back to the van.
When tumbles happened, the kid’s maturity and resilience were shown. Wise words from Andre and other club leaders stuck with the kids, and they bounced right up and back on the bike. They recognized that sometimes falling is part of the game, and it is all about how you respond to that crash, whether it is biking or any other sport they may be playing. To me, that is part of what made this group of kids so special. I could see the trust they had for one another as they encouraged each other to try new things and to be confident doing them. Through riding bikes, the kids learned to trust themselves in a completely new environment, building their confidence in all aspects of life.
To me, mountain biking is all about friendship, collaboration, hard work, and testing ourselves mentally and physically in new environments, and I think through this three-day program, the kids were able to experience all of these feelings. I hope we can ride together again soon and continue to work to have mountain biking be an option at the Blazers Boys & Girls Club.