Say hello to Ivan and Dexter – our 2023 RVC summer student trail crew!

Back in June we started our search for the right people and we’re very lucky to have signed up Ivan and Dexter. Both of these young riders showed a lot of motivation to tune up trails and make our singletrack the best it can be. We got to know Ivan and Dexter a little bit and found out they were both emerging racers with some previous building experience. Yesterday was their first day. We spent some time talking about our safety policy and going over the types of projects we want to accomplish in the next 8 weeks. These guys are going to learn a lot working under the supervision of Bev Bunker – who is volunteering his time and energy to making this crew a success!

We think you’ll notice these guys making an impact. They’ll be getting started at MVP this week with the brush saw knocking back vegetation, getting progress made on a big signage project, and working on some drainage improvements. After that we’re collecting project ideas for Penniac, Islandview, Odell Park, and they may also spend a little time in Woolastook. You might see them out on the trails if you ride during the day. If you see a ‘trail work ahead‘ sign on the trail please slow down and be sure to say hi. If you see a ‘trail temporarily closed‘ sign please head the other way.

Now we need to make a few big thank-you’s!

First of all we need to acknowledge the Canada Youth Employment Strategy that provided RVC with a grant that allowed us to make this happen! Programs like this that support students through grass-roots community organizations like ours are amazing.

We also want to send a huge shout out to Paul and the team at Explore Velo. Last year we had a great discussion and Paul indicated to us that he wanted to support trail maintenance around Fredericton. Explore Velo covered the cost of all of the trail crew’s tools and safety equipment (like first aid kits, eye protection, fire suppression packs, etc) that we needed. Thank you Explore Velo!

We will rely on volunteer trail builders and maintainers for as long as the club exists. Ivan and Dexter are going to really accelerate things over this summer but we’re still going to have trail days and we want members to come forward with projects they want to take on!

So, lets say welcome to Ivan and Dexter and wish them a safe and productive summer.

Do you want to get paid over your summer holidays to improve our singletrack trail network? Send us your resume!

Earlier this week we received some exciting news. Our application to the Canada Summer Jobs program was successful, and we’ve been awarded a grant that will let us hire two students for the summer. So, we’re looking for 2 young students (high school, college, or university) who love trails, have a solid work ethic, and want to help RVC make riding better in the Fredericton area. The job will cover 8 weeks from late June to mid August and we are offering pay that’s better than minimum wage. Fredericton locals have gone on to make careers out of trail building so this may be your start!

We are really excited to have a youth trail crew this year in addition to the hundreds of volunteer hours that get poured into our local trails. We want to get them to focus on maintenance and upkeep across the entire riding network. We will have new build projects going on this year (especially at Woolastook) but we want to not lose sight of the upkeep for some of the awesome trails we already have. We heard lots of support for this idea in our membership survey last year.

By the way… did you see our amazing new RVC Trail Crew Logo? We love it. Huge thanks to Christina T. for the design. You might see some long-time trail builders and maintainers showing this off on a trail dig sometime this summer.

So – please share this (it’s our version of a job ad) and if you think you are the right person – please send us your resume!

Fine print – While we’d love to open this opportunity up to anyone our funding agreement limits us to people between the ages of 15 and 30 who can legally work in Canada (international students are not eligible unfortunately).