Seal's Fundraiser for All Bikes Welcome

Why I, Seal, love All Bikes Welcome: 

1. They produce my favorite community-building mountain biking festival every year. I've been twice now, and it's my favorite week of the year. I loved it so much, I joined the board of directors in January of 2024! 

2. Being outside and biking is a mental health game changer. I love mountain biking because it forces me to be really present and in the moment (I really would crash otherwise). In those times on the trail, I feel free and alive. I hope everyone has an activity that does that for them (and if you're wondering if mountain biking might be it for you, you should come to Grit Fest! No experience required!). 

3. Intentional spaces that celebrate diversity and all the beautiful things that make us unique are, well, life-saving. All Bikes Welcome creates programming and spaces where people are celebrated. Where BIPOC, people of all cognitive and physical abilities, nonbinary folks, trans women and trans men and cis-women can come together and be in community. We're stronger together, and having spaces that are safe for people to be their full, authentic selves is more important now than ever. 

4. Community is only possible when we show up. Grit Fest is a place where people come from all over the globe as strangers, and leave as friends. In some cases (if you're extra lucky), those friends even become lovers! In all cases though, we spend time together on bikes, in a dining tent, and around a campfire with a beer, and we connect with the goodness that is inside of all of us. We get to know our neighbors, whether they're next door or across borders, and the world gets a little brighter because we're less alone. 

Anyways, I could go on all day about why I love this organization and how it has changed my life and the way that I look at community care and why I believe in the work that they're doing. The love I could write in these incredibly long run-on sentences could bring an editor to tears (good? bad? I don't really care). Thank you for supporting me and the causes and missions that are near and dear to my heart. 

XOXOXO Seal 

Our mission is to build more racial equity and gender diversity in cycling by providing free and low-cost outdoor programming in the Northwest Arkansas corridor. We invite folks from a variety of backgrounds to participate in our programs from the “never touched a mountain bike” to the advanced rider. Our goal is to create and support an emerging base of beginner mountain bikers and outdoor enthusiasts by providing opportunities to learn and grow in a fun, supportive, and low-stakes environment.