The Sacramento Bike Hikers provide financial and in-kind support to many local cycling-related organizations. In addition to annual monetary donations and volunteering at American River Parkway Foundation events, we are a financial sponsor of Mile Marker 12 North on the bike trail. Other 501(3)c and nonprofit organizations that benefit from our help include: Project Hero, Sacramento Area Bicycle Association (SABA), 50 Bikes for 50 Kids, and the Bicycle Kitchen.
Project Hero (Ride to Recovery)
In addition to financially sponsoring Project Hero, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing FREE recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration services for hundreds of thousands physically injured veterans and first responders and those with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the Club volunteers for the annual event in Rocklin, providing organization, administration and day-of-event help. Those Club members not volunteering at the event, ride with the Sacramento Bike Hikers event team.
Ride the Parkway
Each year the Club sponsors the American River Parkway Foundation's (ARPF) "Ride the Parkway" event that benefits the American River Parkway. We encourage our members to participate and show the club colors by wearing their jerseys on the ride. Another way our club supports this event is by volunteering resources at Wm. Pond park. This is always a great event supporting the Parkway, and of course there is the great BBQ for participants following the ride.
Great American River Clean-up
We also have been long-time supporters of the Great American River Clean-up sponsored by the American River Parkway Foundation (ARPF). A club member is a cleanup site captain and responsible for organization volunteers and reporting statistics to the ARPF. We meet at a designated "mile marker" along the American River and spend a morning cleaning up trash and debris. The Great American River Cleanup is the American River Parkway Foundation’s largest annual cleanup, hosted on the 3rd Saturday in September alongside the California Coastal Commission’s Coastal Cleanup Day. Volunteers across the state of California come together to remove trash and debris from the state’s waterways. In 2018, 1,226 volunteers removed more than 20,176 pounds of trash from 21 sites along the American River Parkway from Discovery Park to Negro Bar.
Aid to Children in Natural Disaster Areas
The Club provided used bikes and new helmets to children whose families lost everything in the 2015 Lake County fires. Churches in the County provided the names of the children who needed bikes to help them recover from the devastation and emotional loss. We asked Cycles-4-Hope to help to refurbish donated bikes and we purchased new helmets. The equipment was delivered to the children during the Konocti Challenge, an annual bike ride put on by the Lake County Rotary Club.
In 2017, when the Tubbs fire devastated the Santa Rosa area, one of the Club’s members had a grandchild with friends in the Bennett Valley Union School District where he went to school, who had lost their homes and all belongings. This time we worked with Jeff, owner of the Sutterville Bicycle Company, to purchase new bikes for the affected children. He and his staff worked tirelessly to assembly the bikes and provided the staging area for loading up the bikes and helmets to be delivered to the children.
Eppies Great Race/Great American Triathlon
For many years the Bike Hikers have provided bike hand off and parking management for Eppies Great Race and now the Great American Triathlon. The proceeds from these events are donated to several local charities including the American River Parkway Foundation. A link to a video of this effort follows: https://youtu.be/STommL_X88Q