History

History 

One day in the late 1980s, a woman named Marilyn Price, originally from St. Louis, was riding her mountain bike up Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, CA.  From there, she had a beautiful view of San Francisco and thought of the children she knew from St. Anthony’s Dining Room where she volunteered.  Many of those kids had never seen their city from that perspective and had never challenged themselves physically.  They spend most of their days surrounded by cement, including constant exposure to drugs, violence and gang involvement.  

By creating Trips for Kids in Marin County, she was able to take disadvantaged youth in the Bay Area out of the city and make the great outdoors a reality for them.   Since then, Trips for Kids has grown successfully to 82 additional chapters across the US and Canada and all are guided from the National office.  Trips for Kids Metro New York is an affiliate, dedicated to helping disadvantaged children to have educational and out-door experiences.

By using the successful Trips for Kids Marin as our model program, Trips for Kids Phoenix has a strong foundation to start up the development of our ride program for disadvantaged youth.  By using our expertise in mountain biking and child guidance, our staff, volunteers and members of the community can help children overcome some of the obstacles that they often live with in their concrete worlds.

Brandee Lepak Founded Trips for Kids Phoenix in 2013.  As an owner of Global Bikes in Arizona, she was looking for a way to give back to her community in a meaningful way. This program was the perfect fit to share her love of mountain biking with youth who would otherwise not have the opportunity.

In just a few years, we have already taken over 2500 kids on mountain bike adventures.  We are looking forward to many more years and thank you for your support to make this program a success.