Sarah Renteria is the Youth Program Coordinator at Friends of Organ Mountains Desert Peaks (OMDP). Eloisa “Elo” Torres is a high school history teacher and sponsors the Outdoors Club on campus. They are both on the Board of Directors for Southern New Mexico Mountain Biking (SNMTB). Their focus is getting youth on bikes and on their local trails, and they both help coach an after school mountain bike clinic at Centennial High School in Las Cruces, NM.
Friends of OMDP assist in organizing the Dangerbird Adventure Ride on the Monumental Loop. The 250-mile ride spans the ~500,000 acres of Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument. This event also includes an alternate option, the beginner-friendly Safetybird – a 30-mile, one-night ride that provides an introduction to bikepacking.
The high school kids in their programs have expressed a deep and genuine interest in bikepacking. Over the past few years, they have built up a solid MTB fleet, helmets, lights, water bottles, and cages. This grant will support the group to host the Babybird, an adventure bikepacking ride with the youth in their after school program, as well as develop a community gear library and to provide their youth and community with essential bikepacking gear.