ATV run draws a crowd of riders to Ompah area trails

May 03, 2017

In the 10 years the Ompah Community Association’s ATV ride has been running, it has grown by exponential levels.

From about 70 participants at the first one, it grew to just over 1,000 participants two years ago and featured a still-whopping 857 participants last Saturday.

“We’re getting people from all over, including the States,” said organizer Lindy Hay, who helped organize the first ride with Denis Bedard and Rose Boivin of the Double S Marina in Ompah. “I was talking recently to some people from B.C. and they said ‘oh, I know of that event.’”

Hay said they’ve seen the number of side-by-side ATVs increasing, primarily among seniors, who are using the ride to spend time with their grandchildren.

Proceeds from the event go to a number of causes, including the community hall, firehall, firefighters and others in need in the community (they even made a contribution to the outdoor rink fund in Sharbot Lake recently).

For the past five years, there’s also been another partner.

National Ride Captain Byron Smith, who along with Garry Janz co-founded the Telus Ride For Dad program 17 years ago, said that since the Ride started adding ATV, snowmobile and watercraft runs from the original motorcycle ride, the partnership with the Ompah run has been an excellent relationship.

“We’ve been doing this as a fundraising partnership for about five years now when Denis Bedard invited us,” Smith said. “For us, we have other ATV rides but a lot of bikes come through here.”

Smith said the Ride For Dad program began when Janz was diagnosed with prostrate cancer and decided to do a little research.

“Prostrate cancer is 80 per cent curable when detected early,” Smith said. “We’ve now raised more than $23 million for research, are in 40 cities and partnered with Telus.

“This ride is the right demographics for us and helps get the word out.”

Smith said there’s another reason he likes to come here.

“It doesn’t matter what the weather is like, they still go,” he said. “These guys don’t care.

“I can’t say enough about these guys.”