65 riders competed in the 2016 Snow Crush Fat Tire Bike Race at River Bend Nature Center (RBNC) on Jan. 16, raising over $2,000 for both CROCT and RBNC.
Article by Jerry Smith in the Faribault Daily News: Fat tire bike race warms up River Bend Nature Center on a cold day
See all the tweets on the event via the hashtag #SnowCrush2016.
Photo album: Continue reading Snow Crush 2016 was a hit: see the photos, race results, and more
We are teaming up with River Bend Nature Center (RBNC) to host the Snow Crush Fat Tire Bike Race this coming Saturday, Jan. 16. It’s a fundraiser for both organizations. RBNC’s Education Coordinator Kaytlan Moeller & CROCT president Marty Larson teamed up to put the event together:
The Snow Crush poster (PDF) has details on the entire day’s activities:
Visit the Snow Crush Fat Tire Bike Race page on RBNC’s site to pre-register for some savings. And check the Facebook Snow Crush event page for the latest updates, including a race map and a video from a fat bike group ride last winter.
We’re also thrilled to have these sponsors supporting the race:
F-Town Brewing Co., Milltown Premium Adventure Goods, Tandem Bagels, Stoke Coffee Roasters, 45NRTH, hvh Engage, and Matt Shimon Creative.
At the August CROCT board meeting, we discussed conducting a fall/winter fundraising campaign. What do we most need? Our experience with summer youth group rides led us to discussing the feasibility of constructing a dirt pump track somewhere in a city park. But after hearing about the labor-intensive challenges to maintain them, the discussion turned to considering the pros and cons of a modular, portable pump track, for example:
We liked that a portable/modular pump track could be moved from park to park and school to school several times over the course of a season, introducing more kids and their parents to its fun and benefits. And if funded, we could partner up with Community Services again for some programming with it (clinics, ride nights, etc). At the September meeting, the board voted to pursue two grants to initiate the fundraising.
In early October, CROCT member Christopher Tassava wrote a grant application to Northfield Shares. And three Northfield High School mountain bikers — Ellis Orjala, Patrick Welch, and Christof Zweifel — teamed up to apply for funding from the Northfield YouthBank, thanks to an alert about it from another Northfield High School mountain biker, Cole Trebelhorn.
Christopher and his two daughters got their first taste of a pump track in the town of Cuyuna when CROCT traveled to Cuyuna Lakes in August for our overnight youth group ride:
Brian Welch and I took the boys to the Cottage Grove Bike Park a couple weeks ago for their initiation:
We won’t know the outcome of the grant applications till some time in December. If we’re successful with either one, we’ll launch a round of community fundraising to supplement the grants.
We’re stoked to have more mountain bikers from the Faribault area getting involved with CROCT. At their request, we’ve re-opened our Founding Supporters campaign till the end of the month. So if you’re a believer in what we’re all about, help us out. We’ll put the money toward a liability policy. See who else is a CROCT Founding Supporter and then click here to donate.
Stew Moyer and Marty Larson were among the 25+ people making a donation to CROCT’s Founding Supporters fundraising campaign in early May. Board treasurer Carl Arnold collected and deposited their donations.
The goal was to raise enough money to help pay the costs for CROCT to become a MN non-profit ($70) and a chapter of IMBA ($500). Over $825 was raised.
See the Founding Supporters page for the names of everyone who donated.
At the May CROCT Board meeting earlier this week, we voted to establish a small fundraising effort to help pay for the fees for us to become a non-profit and a chapter of IMBA, a total of $570.
So if you, like Joe Pahr, donate $25 or more before Monday, May 12, you will be considered a “Founding Supporter” of CROCT.
This does not mean that you are a member or that you get anything other than bragging rights. But, we are looking into setting up a Founding Supporter ride and social get-together or some other fun event to show our appreciation.
And to make it easier than finding me downtown Northfield someplace and delivering your contribution in the form of cash or check, we’ve made it easy for you to contribute via credit card.
But act now, because this offer ends at midnight on May 12. Operators are not standing by. Do not call 1-800-DONATE-CROCT.
Update, May 13: the campaign is over! I’ll update the blog with the results Real Soon Now.