Hey, let’s get our bikes, we can go over to the Sandy River. There is a lifeguard there today and it's supposed to be a hot one. We can even take the MAX back with our bikes!” 

How would you feel waking up every morning knowing that every day will hold unforgettable adventures, bonding with a diverse group of co-explorers, facing exciting challenges, learning life lessons from trusted mentors, and looking back at the end of each journey with a sense of the world around you grown closer and full of possibility?  

A generation ago, young people grew up able to explore with their friends and seek out  the wonder of the everyday…they quickly grew to appreciate the richness of the place where they live, and develop a sense of personal connection to their own community. Now the world has changed, and a child’s life experiences are restricted to classroom studies and electronic media; adventure is something they know second-hand through books or movies. Without a sense the range of possibilities that are out there and the personal resources to find them, youth become unimaginative, incapable, and disaffected.

Pursuing one’s inner passions becomes the exclusive domain of less-inspired adults.  

Similarly, knowing how to work as a team, to trust in each other, to focus on a larger goal, and to share the joys of discovery with new friends, especially from across town who before were just unfamiliar strangers…these experiences make up the foundation of a deeper sense of connection. Often for young people, “community” is more of an academic term, a superficial abstraction that happens through Facebook. Without a personal introduction to what makes their community a place of beauty and richness, they lose interest in making their own unique contribution. Without opportunities to see and develop their own leadership qualities, they resist others’ leadership and lose their direction. 

As young people’s range of experience and relationships diminish, so does their confidence in taking on their fears, their sense of their own potential, the richness of their personal lives, and their depth of their relationships to society and the living world.  

Reversing this bleak picture of reality for your 10-15 year old is as easy as going to your local community bike shop and signing up for a summertime bicycle adventures program. Highly affordable, designed for riders of all abilities, and led by dynamic instructors with many years’ expertise mentoring diverse youth, Camp Bike Fun is an unforgettable experience that adults would love and young people deserve as part of their lives.  

Every day of the program, each young person will discover new places of wonder and beauty, grow in strength and confidence, learn skills and stories from expert adventure guides, and expand the boundaries of their world in all dimensions and directions.  

In reaching spectacular destinations through their own brain and muscle power, young people will become personally linked to the unique resources of our area; by going on exciting adventures with a group of diverse peers, they will develop valued bonds of trust with other members of our community; by participating in service projects such as….., they will see themselves as contributors to our larger society.  

Former program participants, speaking many years later with vivid memories and nostalgia, express how summer bicycle adventures have changed their lives:

"Camp Bike Fun was the funnest, coolest thing I've ever done in my life." - Dawan age 11

"I never knew that I had a such a leader inside of me." - Tiffany age 15

"It's hecka tight!" - Nina age 13

"I wish everyone could enjoy the experiences that we had every day. I'll remember this for the rest of my life." Jose age 12