Cycle Oregon is not just about incredible rides in spectacularly beautiful country. It’s about helping people and rural communities all across this state that we are lucky enough to call home. And since we’re able to do it through riding bikes, well that’s all the better.

Every year Cycle Oregon takes the proceeds from our events and puts them in the Cycle Oregon Fund. In 2018 this fund was able to award 21 grants totaling $125,400 to benefit projects and causes from Pendleton to Tillamook and many places in between. These grants are helping convert an old elementary school in Baker City into a bike/ski hostel for people exploring the scenic bikeways or playing in the powder at Anthony Lakes, they are helping fund a program through the La Grande Farmers Market that will help low-income families have access to healthier foods, and they are making accessibility upgrades for tribal elders at the Wallowa Band Nez Perce Trail Interpretive Center near Joseph, Oregon.

In addition to these community grants, Cycle Oregon continues to contribute to our most ambitious project to date – the Salmonberry Trail. In the last five years, we have donated $250,000 and have pledged to raise $1,000,000 in total for the Salmonberry Trail Project in an ongoing effort to create this one of a kind Portland-to-coast adventure trail.

The 2018 Cycle Oregon Fund grants were awarded to:

• Help create an after-school program for children in  Pendleton
• Convert an old elementary school into a bike/ski hostel in Baker City
• General support for the Columbia Gorge Community College, as well as the Columbia Gorge Regional Airport
• Assist bicycle programs for the low-income, Spanish speaking immigrant community in Portland
• Replace bleachers and make improvements to the athletic facilities in Crescent
• Replace the porch and foundation of Creswell’s old schoolhouse
• General support for the school, the museum, and the recreation district in Dufur
• Help maintain and grow the Youth Actors Program at the Elgin Opera House in Elgin, Oregon
• Assist with the installation of a new bronze sculpture along Main Street in Joseph
• Provide funding for a program to help low-income families eat healthy at the La Grande Farmers Market
• Help make accessibility upgrades for tribal elders at the Wallowa Band Nez Perce Trail Interpretive Center
• General support for North Wasco County, Pine Eagle School District, and the Dalles Chamber of Commerce
• Assist programs that maintain and protect more than 80 miles of trail in the Eagle Cap Wilderness near Wallowa
• Support for Oregon’s Scenic Bikeway Program’s 10 year anniversary events
• Continued support of The Street Trust, a bicycle advocacy group out of Portland
• Continued support to help make the Salmonberry Trail from Portland to the coast a reality