SANTA CRUZ, CALIF. –  Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz (MBOSC), a 501(c)(3) trail stewardship organization, today launched its new 4-week fundraising campaign, “Trail Aid”, to support trails, bolster COVID-19 relief funds, and give away an Ibis Cycles bicycle in the process. Twenty-five percent of each contribution made as a part of this campaign will go to the COVID-19 relief fund of the contributor’s choice, and for every $5 contributed, participants earn one entry into an end-of-campaign drawing for the Ibis bike of their choice. By offering a campaign like this to trail users around the world, MBOSC is furthering its mission of supporting sustainable trail networks and promoting community-mindedness among outdoor enthusiasts. MBOSC aims to raise $80,000 for trails and COVID-19 recovery efforts through this 4-week fundraiser, which ends on Monday, May 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT. A winner will be selected on Tuesday, May 26. Interested parties can contribute to Trail Aid and earn a chance to win an Ibis here. 

Through this campaign, MBOSC will give 25% of each contribution to a COVID-19 response fund making a major impact in the fight against this pandemic. Contributors can choose whether they’d like to funnel a portion of their contribution to Direct Relief, an organization channeling emergency healthcare equipment to communities across the globe, the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County, an organization providing much-needed support right here in Santa Cruz, Second Harvest Food Bank, a group working to end hunger throughout Santa Cruz County, or Project PPE 4 Central Coast, a movement to pool engineering and manufacturing resources from local businesses to provide PPE to front line workers across the Central Coast. 

Since the onset of COVID-19, parks and public outdoor spaces have been flooded with visitors. Trails provide much-needed healing during times of crisis, and serve as venues for exercise, meditation, and relaxation for thousands of people every day. The value of robust, sustainable trail networks is clear now more than ever, as is the need for community-driven trail stewardship. Campaigns like Trail Aid provide support right now to help MBOSC hit the ground running with new trail projects and trail maintenance as soon as shelter-in-place orders allow. 

“We’re in this together, and leveraging one of our biggest annual raffles of the year is the best way to support recovery at both the local and global level while also furthering our mission of expanding and maintaining sustainable trail networks across Santa Cruz County and the bay area at large. As our trail projects have been shut down and local park access limited in response to the spread of COVID-19, it became clear to us at MBOSC that this crisis was not one that we could in good conscience sit idly by and let others shoulder the burden of fighting this pandemic,” said Matt De Young, Executive Director of Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz. “This global health crisis is all of ours to carry, and we hope that devoting a portion of proceeds from this campaign directly to relief efforts will help bring this terrible chapter to a close.”