MBT Youth Program Coordinator: $2,400
The Community Foundation partially funded Mountain Bike the Tetons grant for a dedicated program staff in order to meet growing community needs and expectations set by the groundbreaking, local youth cycling education program Sprockids. This outstanding opportunity will provide MBT with the foundation necessary to provide a more robust, inclusive, comprehensive and affordable summer program to local kids and their families.
The Sprockids Program is the first of its kind for our region. MBT recognized an opportunity to serve this community by leveraging mountain bikes to help shape local kids into better outdoors people. Focus on character and values over skills and techniques is the program’s priority. Teaching kids to be courteous and responsible neighbors is a more important result than turning them into competitive mountain bikers and thus, much of the curriculum of the Sprockids Program focuses on giving back to the community through trail work and advocacy, as well as how to respectfully interact with multiple user groups, and how to avoid and mitigate conflicts when out on the trails. We use mountain bike skills as a tool to teach self-reliance, to increase confidence, to promote physical fitness, to foster respect for one’s self and one’s peers and to develop a greater appreciation for outdoor recreation.
After soliciting and receiving significant feedback from local parents, the Sprockids Program was launched in July 2018. The program registration filled in under 3 hours and a waitlist twice the size of enrollment ensued. Parent volunteers were eager to participate alongside their children, requests were made to increase enrollment and management of the program quickly became more multi-faceted and nuanced. In 2019, the Sprockids Program will expand to 60 kids and add an additional weekly session. With increasing demand, evolving expectations, developing new partnerships (Coombs Foundation, Buddy Pegs) and subsequent growth, a dedicated Sprockids Program Coordinator is necessary in order to meet these needs and to allow the MBT Executive Director to channel and refocus efforts and associated operating budget back into the critical administrative, outreach, and development elements of the organization.
The mission of Mountain Bike the Tetons is to build a vibrant, healthy community by enhancing recreational and economic opportunities in the Teton Region through
Teton Valley is home to a world-class public lands trail network, as well as numerous urban and lift-served bike parks (we are currently being evaluated for IMBA Gold Ride Center status – as one of the most prestigious mountain biking destinations/communities in the world).
