Five-year-old Safiya Mohammed from Calgary rides down the half pipe at the Bikes and Boards community event Saturday in the parking lot of Badlands Training Centre.--NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Saturday’s Boards and Bikes community event was better than Cindy Organ ever expected.
The front of house manager at Whisky District was the organizer behind the event hosted in the parking lot of Badlands Training Centre on Saturday afternoon.
The event, in conjunction with Cyclepath and Boarding House, was geared toward giving people the opportunity to test out e-bikes, enjoy boarding, support local business and enjoy being together as a community.
Organ said it was three times better than she expected and was happy with how everyone came together.
Badlands Training Centre manager Dallas Deman said it was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
“What better Saturday afternoon, when a whole bunch isn’t going on, to bring people in, have the community come and see you who you are, what you are, what you’re all about, and involve all these organizations with us,” Deman said. ” I don’t think it happens enough.”
The SPCA and Bunny Run had booths in the middle of the lot offering dog training and handling advice, and information on the domesticated bunnies which are in the wild around Medicine Hat. Red Rum Tattoo had face painting, Blondie’s Gift and Gardens donated a flower basket for raffle, the sensory bus was parked for tours and the Sunshine Trolley was offering rides.
The centrepiece of the event was the local band Unwanted Opinions, which performed for two hours to accompany the booths. They’re a self-proclaimed grunge punk band taking inspiration from Nirvana.
Vocalist and guitarist Toryn Minor said they like to support the community while playing.
“We like doing gigs where we are supporting our local community,” Minor said.
His bandmates are his brother Morrison, who is also a vocalist and plays bass guitar, and Ben Reimer, who is the drums and percussion.
They said the name comes from their mom who suggested it ahead of a gig last year.
“We had a gig in August for Redcliff days and it was one week before … our mom came up with that,” Toryn and Morrison split saying. “We thought if we couldn’t come up with anything else that’s it, and it ended up being it.”
Boarding House had a mobile half pipe brought in and had equipment available for anyone interested in trying out boarding. Boarding house owner Scott Dent said he was proud all the businesses could get together and gain exposure while bringing the community together.
“Through COVID, it’s been challenging to do events like this, and with Spectrum running, being able to coordinate this and get these groups together as well,” Dent said. “The nice thing about this is it’s at no charge to the groups, most of them are non-profits. It’s an opportunity for them just to be able to come out and promote their products for both the services that they have to offer, and it’s just been a positive.”
CyclePath had multiple e-bikes available for people to test drive on the hills which the bikes are designed to help riders navigate. Cyclepath owner Greg Watson said they had a lot of interested people ask questions and had several dozen try out the bikes.
He said the Bikes and Boards event was a tremendous afternoon for everyone involved.
“It was so nice to have all local participants of vendors and people showing stuff like advocacy for cycling in Medicine Hat,” Watson said. “We have the sensation bus and everything else in between, everybody here. It’s quite a little festival.”
