La Grande Pump Track Receives $20,000 Grant from Wildhorse Foundation
By Garrett Christensen on Friday, April 14th, 2023 in Featured Stories Northeastern Oregon News
LA GRANDE – (Release from the Wildhorse Foundation) The Blue Mountain Singletrack Trails Club announced that it has received a $20,000 grant from the Wildhorse Foundation to build a pump track in La Grande. A pump track is an asphalt track featuring banked corners and rollers designed for bicycles, skateboards, rollerblades, scooters, and roller skates. While pump tracks were originally designed for BMX riders, you can now find mountain bikes, strider bikes, wheelchairs, and scooters being tested on them.
The pump track will be located in Pioneer Park near downtown La Grande and will offer a safe and exciting place for youth and families to recreate and enjoy exercise and the outdoors. It will also reduce barriers for youth of differing abilities.
“We’re excited for kids in this area to have another place to go exercise. But this exercise will feel like play so we expect the track to be busy,” said Club President Tyler Brooks.
Pump tracks, because they are user friendly, allow kids to learn and practice new skills and gain confidence on their bikes. These skills can translate into biking on local trails, connecting people to the outdoor spaces in the region. The track also provides an opportunity for kids to socialize in person rather than through technology. For more information regarding the pump track or how you can help, visit www.bluemountainstc.org.
About Blue Mountain Singletrack Trails Club:
Blue Mountain Singletrack Trails Club supports an active and thriving outdoor community in Northeastern Oregon by expanding and maintaining sustainable singletrack trails. The club is the primary organization building and maintaining non-motorized trails on the Union County owned Mount Emily Recreation Area. The club has also partnered with Anthony Lakes to fundraise for the Broadway Flow Trail Project. Along with fundraising and trail building/maintaining, the club runs annual bicycle events and a youth bicycle race series throughout the summer. In the past three years, the club has taken on the challenge of getting a pump track built at Pioneer Park in La Grande, Oregon. We have fundraised to have plans professionally drawn for the project and are now in the fundraising stage for the construction of the pump track.
About Wildhorse Foundation:
The Wildhorse Foundation was established January 1, 2001 for the purpose of formalizing charitable giving on behalf of the Wildhorse Resort & Casino and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Funds from the Wildhorse Foundation are used for education, public health, public safety, gambling addiction prevention, the arts, environmental protection, cultural activities, salmon restoration, and historic preservation. Grants are awarded on a quarterly basis with deadlines being January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1. For more information, visit TheWildhorseFoundation.com.
