IMBA TAKMB Day!

A great time Saturday 10/1/11 at the IMBA TAKMB (take a kid mountain biking) event at Pocahontas State Park. Organized by IMBA, REI, and "Friends of Pocahontas" and with great food from Mrs. Marshall's in Carytown, it was a really fun event. And Joel from REI got plenty of work tuning up and fixing bikes and all the kids enjoyed having a bottle provided by Rowlett's.

The number of kids far surpassed last year (the first year the even was held at PSP); 65 had pre-registered! Eight Design Physics members came out to volunteer: Jason Hopkins, Mason Hopkins (honorary member), Sonya Gagnon, David Reid, Tom Haines, Joe Fish, Nolan Felts, and Kylan Shirley. That along with a few Luna Chix made it a busy day, taking groups out, going back to "base camp", taking another group out, etc.

The kids seemed to have a great time; some opted for just the fire road, some would venture onto some single track for a cut-through back to the fireroads, and some did the whole box-turtle green trail.

Two stories that stuck in my mind- one was of a teenage boy who came out last year and had said he was scared of the red trail but this year when asked he said "Oh yeah I do the red trail all the time". Another of two girls aged 7 and 9 who rode up to Mason in the morning and asked if racing was fun and said they wanted to be "racers". When the groups were going out they wouldn't go until Mason went so they could go with her. What we do with the kids really makes a difference and could affect their futures.

Oh and the teeter-totter was a big hit with the kids!

Thanks to David Reid for encouraging us to volunteer for this event.

More pictures can be found here.