The second advocacy group fundraiser t-shirt!

$5 from each shirt will be donated directly to the KBRA

While doing research on the Kamloops riding scene, I discovered that one of the local advocacy groups, the KBRA, had a really interesting story. The group is very much member oriented, and had just won a $17,000 sports grant from the local hockey club. They were going to be putting much of the money into their growing kids’ league. As a parent of a three year old, I thought this was super cool. I also liked that the group had welcomed Catharine Pendrel, and Catherine actually led as the group’s president for several years.

Advocacy groups like the KBRA are crucial if mountain biking is going to stick around as a legitimate sport. When political leaders and land managers need to determine what will happen with open spaces and parks, they need groups that represent the various user groups. In the case of KBRA, they represent over 1,000 local cyclists. That’s a significant percentage of the 80,000 local residents, and it allows mountain biking to not just be seen as a legitimate user group, but as a group that’s well organized for effective communication with critical decision makers.

Advocacy is often a thankless job, and I sure as heck don’t want to be spending my evenings in board meetings and going to endless town council meetings, so I want to do all I can to promote those that are able to push the advocacy front.

Also, I want to thank the KPCC for building and managing many of the riding areas in the Kamloops region. The KPCC has a very different strategy than the KBRA, with more emphasis on moving dirt and less emphasis on membership, but I believe these two strategies can continue to grow the Kamloops scene.