Building Partnerships & Community Through MTB Education: Outdoors for All, Wounded Warrior Project, and Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance Collaboration
Outdoors for All and Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance have had a long-standing partnership, with the goal to get more people on bikes. This year, with the generous support of Outdoors for All, Evergreen was able to offer free shuttles to veterans at the Evergreen Mountain Bike Festival at Raging River in June. One group that joined us for rides to the top of Raging River was the veteran organization Wounded Warrior Project (WWP). While fun was had at the Festival, the excitement didn’t stop at the end of that ride.
This summer Evergreen continued its partnership with Outdoors for All and offered its first veteran-based education program. Working with WWP, Evergreen and Outdoors for All offered a three-week introduction to mountain biking series to seven veterans or as we now know them, “Warriors.”
The series wasn’t just about riding bikes, and it went beyond what we could ever have imagined. It strengthened our partnership with Outdoors for All and it garnered what we hope is a long-term relationship with WWP. We rode bikes, we sweat, we laughed, learned together, celebrated, but most importantly, we grew our community.
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Words by Steve Rybolt, Adaptive MTB Program Manager, Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance
Photos courtesy of Wounded Warrior Project
Outdoors for All is a Seattle based non-profit focused on providing adaptive recreation for people with disabilities such as skiing, cycling, kayaking, hiking, rock climbing, day camps, and more. Learn more about Outdoors for All on their website.
Wounded Warrior Project® is the nation’s leading veterans service organization, dedicated to improving the total well-being of post‑9/11 wounded, ill, and injured veterans, service members, and their families. Their programs, advocacy, and awareness efforts help warriors thrive, provide essential lifelines to families and caregivers, and prevent veteran suicides. Learn more about Wounded Warrior Project on their website.
Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance is dedicated to building, maintaining, and protecting sustainable mountain biking opportunities, partnering with land managers and contributing an average of 22,000 hours of volunteer labor each year. Evergreen is Washington State’s largest mountain bike association, and the largest single-state mountain bike organization in the nation, representing thousands of riders and advocating for access for years to come. Learn more at www.evergreenmtb.org.