Organizers of Eden Foundation’s 23rd annual Head for the Hills are aiming to make the popular cycling fundraiser more accessible than ever.
A new, third route is being offered this year along with the traditional 38 km gravel and 29 km trail routes. This “relaxed route” will take participants on a mostly flat eight kilometres around the Cripple Creek music festival site south of Morden where the day will start and end for all riders.
“The longer routes can be a little daunting,” said Dave Sawatsky, the foundation’s director of development. “They might not work for families to do that long of a ride with younger kids, or for folks with different ability levels. So it’s just creating ways for more people to participate and be part of the Eden story by creating a shorter and flatter route.
“We’ve been in the 200 or so neighbourhood of participants—we’d love to shoot for 250 this year,” he continued. “You can register as an individual or you can get together with your friends, coworkers, youth group, church members, families, etc, and join as a team. Do it as a fun activity with your group, raise money together, ride together, and enjoy the day together.”
Owners of electric bikes are more than welcome to ride those at the event.
“This is not a race,” Sawatsky stressed. “This is a participation and engagement event for all abilities and ages and stages—so bring whatever you’ve got, charge your battery, and join the ride.”
Registration is $40 for adults and $25 for kids. Those fees mainly go to cover the costs associated with the event, so the hope is riders will further contribute by collecting pledges prior to the ride on behalf of Eden.
“It’s the donations that are really at the heart of the fundraising for this event,” Sawatsky said, sharing that last year’s Head for the Hills brought in around $100,000 for mental health programming. “We’d love to get it up to $115,000, if we can.”
The money supports things like Eden Health Care Services’ sliding-fee scale counselling programming (which offered thousands of subsidized sessions last year), the Recovery of Hope supports for people with employment challenges, supportive housing complexes, and the volunteer program at the psychiatric care facility in Winkler.
“Whatever numbers we get, we’re very thankful for the community supporting us,” said Sawatsky. “We’re thankful for the continuity of the support from the community, big or small. It’s been so constant and faithful.
“And we’re really just thankful for how the community has engaged and embraced this event for 23 years now. You don’t see a lot of events that last that long.”
The day will get underway at 8 a.m. with registration followed by a staggered start beginning at about 9 a.m. Lunch will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“We’ll have lunch together and then we’ll celebrate together with some prizes for the top individual fundraiser and the top team fundraisers,” Sawatsky said, noting there will be two brand new bikes presented to the winners. A third bicycle will be drawn for in a general draw open to all riders.
There will also be other great prizes up for grabs, with riders receiving entry tickets when they check in that day.
“If they’ve reached certain [fundraising] milestones, then they’ll get more tickets to enter to win those prizes,” Sawatsky noted.
To register or make a donation, head to edenhealthcare.ca/h4h.
