Graeme Simpson: Sponsors important for mountain bike events

The Rotorua Mountain Bike Club's 1st Response Unit is making it safer in the forest. Photo/Nick Lambert, Zero Seven

Sponsors are the fuel that lights the fire for our mountain bike events, clubs and trails.

Giant Bikes have played a big role in Rotorua and they've just ramped up that commitment, donating an ebike to the 1st Response Unit.

This will make it easier for the unit to access downed riders. Faster, too, and that can be critical when injuries are very serious.

ACC SportSmart is a supporter of the unit. They know that the faster someone can be stabilised, the better chance of a positive outcome - and, ultimately, less cost to the healthcare system and taxpayer.

Erin Eggleston and Barbara Jenks from the local Mountain Club are driving the project.

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Erin's from the healthcare sector (psychologist at QE Health Wellness and Spa) and Barbara's background is in education. Both are enthusiastic mountain bikers - so they are a perfect combination.

"ADU has donated helmets, knee pads, gloves for the team, as well," says Erin. "We've applied for community funding for a defibrillator and a stretcher barrow for our four-wheeler buggy."

The barrow will make life a lot simpler to extract broken riders.

"It has one large wheel and two handles and carries a stretcher," says Barbara. "Great for tricky terrain, only requires two people to operate and folds up to go on the back of the buggy."

There's more good news for the unit.

"The Phillip Verry Charitable Trust Foundation has come on board as a naming sponsor for three years, so we'll see the name of the unit updated to reflect this," adds Erin.

With local photographer and video producer Graeme Murray, I worked on a series of videos for Red Stag Timber, when Phil Verry was the boss. It was a real privilege.

He was a remarkable man with passion, vision and a resolute commitment to our community and its health on all levels. Our production meetings always ran long because the first half an hour would be about the forest and mountain biking.

Phil died in 2009, but his vision lives on at Red Stag. The Waipa mill is an essential part of the Whakarewarewa Forest, but that's another (long) story for another day. Having his name on the Verry Safe Trail from the Waipa car park to Nursery Road and now the unit is a very appropriate tribute.

Like so many aspects of our MTB world, the unit is also supported by the trusts - Rotorua Energy Charitable, First Sovereign, New Zealand Community and Southern.

And Mountain Bike Rotorua and Peak Safety have been an integral part of getting it firmly established. You can make a contribution: www.mtbclub.org.nz

The Rotorua Daily Post has supported mountain biking for a long time. Karyn Scherer was the editor back in 2003.

She was ahead of the curve, recognising the potential of mountain biking and inviting me to write this weekly column. When I started getting the word out about MTB events in Rotorua, then-sports editor Craig Tiriana was invaluable, especially with the 2006 UCI Mountain Bike and Trials World Championships.

The Rotorua Daily Post team has continued that support on a variety of events since. A big contributor to that was Matthew Martin. Matty left the Post a couple of weeks ago. I'll miss him. He was supportive, funny and spoke truth to power.