Whether it is volunteer-run non-profit bicycle repair, infrastructure development, recreation and transport, or high-performance training cycling builds community. Our sport has an incredible power to unite people enabling them to work together toward a common good by helping them transcend differences. Without our volunteers there would be no racing, no bike paths, no commuter proficiency training, and no aspiring young athletes.
Volunteerism is expressed in a number of practical ways; building and maintaining trails, organizing races, marshalling, officiating, and coaching to name but a few. Volunteering depends not only on the support of the community but on the support, and recognition of the MCA and Cycling Canada. From my perspective the Awards Presentation was as much about our unsung heroes as it was about athletic accomplishment. Most people are aware that racing a bike requires dedication, perseverance, and skill. From time-to-time it is necessary to come together and remember that racing a bike is also a social obligation to our community, and to each other. To paraphrase Barack Obama …
“Take a moment to think about what you can do to shape the future of this sport we love so much. Loving your sport shouldn't only mean showing up to a race. Next summer, I’m calling on all of you to make volunteerism and community service part of your cycling life. Sport is as much about what you’re doing in your communities, as it is about what the Manitoba Cycling Association is doing — and it’s going to take all of us, working together.
Thank you volunteers!
Joni Mitchell’s 1970 hit song, Big Yellow Taxi:
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone.
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot.
Volunteerism is expressed in a number of practical ways; building and maintaining trails, organizing races, marshalling, officiating, and coaching to name but a few. Volunteering depends not only on the support of the community but on the support, and recognition of the MCA and Cycling Canada. From my perspective the Awards Presentation was as much about our unsung heroes as it was about athletic accomplishment. Most people are aware that racing a bike requires dedication, perseverance, and skill. From time-to-time it is necessary to come together and remember that racing a bike is also a social obligation to our community, and to each other. To paraphrase Barack Obama …
“Take a moment to think about what you can do to shape the future of this sport we love so much. Loving your sport shouldn't only mean showing up to a race. Next summer, I’m calling on all of you to make volunteerism and community service part of your cycling life. Sport is as much about what you’re doing in your communities, as it is about what the Manitoba Cycling Association is doing — and it’s going to take all of us, working together.
Thank you volunteers!
Joni Mitchell’s 1970 hit song, Big Yellow Taxi:
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone.
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot.
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