SBC and Durango Clarifications

I want to try another avenue to clarify what is required of Team El Grupo riders and what options exist with regards to El Grupo’s Summer Bike Camp and the Durango MTB Camp. I apologize if it was not clear in the insider newsletter. Please let me know if you have further questions – happy to answer them!

I am going to go in “reverse” order here – Durango info and then SBC info.

#1 Durango MTB Camp -July 22-28 – This will be the 10th year that El Grupo takes a group of youth riders to an amazing opportunity to learn from and ride with some of the greatest people in Mountain and Road biking in this country! We stay at Fort Lewis College dormitories and have a rigorous schedule of riding, guest speakers, and skills development for an entire week.  It is truly transformative and awesome!

The ACTUAL COST to El Grupo for YOU (each rider) to go to Durango MTB Camp is $850 for the week. 

We pay $700 directly to Fort Lewis College per rider and the additional $150 offsets the costs of: transportation to/from, food and camping to/from, fees for required coaches/drivers, mountain bike prep/materials, etc.

You have two options for “paying” for your trip to Durango:

1. Pay El Grupo $850 for the week and you are done!
2. Pay El Grupo $300 (heavily subsidized) for the week and help out by doing the following:
   1. Purchase (and sell) at minimum 3 raffle tickets (value $30)
   2. Volunteer ONE WEEK of Summer Bike Camp (value $225 plus)

We value making opportunities like the Durango MTB camp accessible and engaging youth in outreach events that benefit those whom we engage and the youth who learn how to be mentors. For this reason, we are ALSO providing an opportunity for YOU to get paid for an additional week (or more) if that helps to offset the $300 that is owed for camp.

I will do a specific sign up and ask for payment for Durango in June, but just trying to give folks a heads up!

#2 – Summer Bike Camp is our “flagship” outreach program – and it is a blast! One of our core values that you signed onto being part of Team El Grupo is “youth empowering youth” – which means giving back to the community that supports you by developing leadership skills and passing along your love for riding bikes to others, especially younger kids. YOU as youth counselors are what make camp a success!

We would love to have you ALL there all 3 weeks – BUT that is overwhelming for you and us!

Instead, we are asking that EACH RIDER VOLUNTEER ONE WEEK at SBC this summer, minimum.

***IF YOU WANT TO GET PAID TO DO AN ADDITIONAL WEEK….then, as with any other job, we are asking that you submit a resume to Daniela by May 29th – 5pm. This is both to teach you how to do a resume for future jobs AND to secure your ability to get paid. The workshop that we are offering to you FREE this evening will help you create your resume and then have that for future use. How cool!

For BOTH volunteering AND the opportunity of getting paid, please use this SIGN UP to put in minimum one week for volunteering, and the additional one week to potentially get paid. They are listed as “PAID” and “VOLUNTEERING” and the first day of each week is listed, but you would be working ALL WEEK. The stipend that we can pay youth for the week of work at camp (i.e. hanging out and riding bikes with kids!) is $225.

In addition, we now have ANOTHER opportunity for YOU to earn money through the extended day Nutrition Camp option (12pm-5pm Monday-Thursday) of each week – through that you could earn $140. Again, this is intended to be a learning and job opportunity for you and a way to offset the cost of Durango OR just make some extra cash this summer! If you worked one week of both, you would earn $365!

We most certainly want to make both participating in Summer Bike Camp and Durango MTB camp accessible to all riders so please let me know if you have further questions or concerns.

Thanks! Daniela & Ignacio

P.S. If you know that you cannot make a single week of SBC already, please chat with us BEFORE June 1st so we can find some reasonable alternative. Thanks!