On April 23rd, 2020, we published a blog called "Our First “Barn Raising” about building some bridges that our trails needed and how FORBA would need the community’s help in both volunteer work and donations. It’s almost exactly one year later and we couldn’t be any more stoked to announce that the new bridge at Hobby Park is officially open as of April 10, 2021.
Some other good news from that blog is that we were able to solve our issues at Tanglewood with a re-route, saving us some money. It’s a good thing too because lumber prices have gone way up, increasing costs drastically.
The new bridge at Hobby was a huge undertaking, the biggest job we’d taken on as an organization, but what is more impressive than the structure is how it was built. It’s been awesome watching our mountain biking community come together to support it. We owe some giant thank-yous to so many people for stepping up.
We’ve logged over 200 volunteer hours at Hobby Park since July 2020, those are largely spent on the 106 ft of new bridge. We ended up going a bit over budget. No worries though, our community also came through when it was time to fund the $2600+ project. We’ve had a record-setting amount of donations along with many new paid members and monthly sustainers! Since January 2021 alone, we collected $1600+ to finish up the project.
THANK YOU!
We want to thank to everyone who gave some money to this effort, no matter how much. Every single dollar helps! And, thank you to everyone who showed up to a workday (or many) to lend a hand on this year-long project.
While the newest bridge at Hobby Park was such a stretch project for us, it’s just the very beginning for this community-led organization. It’s been super fun working on it and amazing to see all the skills, creativity, and dedication from the community, during a pandemic no less! We hope it’s enjoyed for many years to come and hope to see everyone out on the trails soon!
Want to say in the loop on FORBA projects? Become a member for a little as $10 a year.