The theft of nine mountain bikes dedicated to a non-profit program for kids, was a real blow, says Laura Maedel, assistant coordinator of the Roberts Creek Community School Society.
“We've only had a couple of bikes back and not necessarily in the best of shape and we're still missing the majority of the bikes, and I don't think we're ever going to get them back,” says Maedel. “One of them is still at the RCMP that I have to pick up. So yeah, it's pretty upsetting because these kids were relying on these bikes to be able to do these programs and it's not like we have pools of money that we can just tap into to replace the bikes.”
She explains Roberts Creek Community School operates as a nonprofit society, which exists in partnership with Sunshine Coast Community Schools. The bikes were purchased in 2019, after the school qualified for a provincial grant, which allowed it to create what’s known as “side projects” — after-school programs offered free of charge across the school district. She notes one of the mandates of the program is making it low-barrier, so all kids have the opportunity to take part, whether or not they own a bike and helmet.
“Knowing that mountain biking was something that was really appreciated in this community, we purchased the bikes from this grant, and had been running the program for the last number of years, with amazing instructors and having really great success with kids getting access to participate in that for free,” says Maedel. “And all in all, it's been really wonderful, putting this on without them even having to own their own mountain bike.”
The bikes had been secured in a locked bike storage at Gibson Elementary School, until some time during the Oct. 19 to 20 weekend, when someone cut into it and stole them all. The theft was discovered Monday, Oct. 21. The bikes were stored at the elementary school because they’re shared amongst several programs across the Coast, and Gibsons is centrally located.
Maedel says adding insult to injury, is that some of the bikes were simply vandalized.
“It was really frustrating because one of the bikes was just basically snapped in half and just destroyed for no reason and another, someone had taken a knife to the seat,” she said. “You can understand if someone would steal something in order to get money to buy something else, but you can't wrap your head around just destroying it for no other purpose.”
Maedel says her faith in humanity was restored as word of the thefts spread throughout the mountain-bike community. She notes Adam Silver, one of the instructors for the program, immediately stepped up and reached out to Chris Glew, owner of Elphinstone Cycles in Gibsons. Silver is a board member of the Coast Mountain Bike Trail Association, while Glew is president.
Silver says mountain bikes are not cheap and a lot of kids don't have their own, so when the ad hoc program first started, there was a much smaller groups because they could only run it for kids who had their own.
“And that disqualified a lot of kids who might otherwise have wanted to go with their friends and go riding in the woods,” says Silver. “And oftentimes we also got these bikes from someone's garage and we spent half our time fixing them. So that was never a good situation, but our numbers just blew up after we got our fleet of bikes.”
Silver says Glew initially offered to repair the bikes as they got returned, but with only two found so far, the program has been borrowing what they need to keep going. He adds, Glew has now offered to help replace the bikes.
“In this case, we'll be replacing a bunch of the bikes and obviously just helping coordinate with the various parties to see if any of them can be recovered,” says Glew. “But in the meantime, we've ordered some more bikes that we'll be providing to the program.”
He says the program is so important, because learning to ride a bike offers a kid their first feeling of freedom and independence. He adds in this case, the program offers bike coaching and the opportunity to ride for some students who don't have bikes and whose family either can't afford them or aren’t ready to invest in one yet.
“I don't think you can own a bike shop and do all those things without caring about bikes.” Says Glew. “So, when I heard the bikes got stolen, we reached out and offered to help in any way we can.”
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