Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Bike fundraiser in support of CT scanner

'It Could Happen to You' event to kick off WORCA season

By Andrew Mitchell

Whistler’s Todd Hellinga was having a great day riding his mountain bike in Pemberton in early April when disaster struck. Just a few hundred metres from the bottom of a trail called Grumpy Grouse he was landing a small jump when his forks snapped. He was driven into the ground head first, no time to even put his arms up.

The result was three compressed vertebrae, a fractured skull, a concussion, and a broken eardrum, resulting in a five-day hospital stay. He is expected to make a strong recovery, although he is facing several months of physiotherapy once his neck brace comes off and may require some surgery to help his hearing.

The experience left him with a greater appreciation for our health care system, but concerned by the lack of health care options in the Sea to Sky corridor. He was taken to four hospitals after being loaded into an ambulance, stopping first at Pemberton to find that the X-Ray attendant was not on duty, then moved to Whistler for his first X-Rays. Doctors then sent him down to Lions Gate Hospital for a CT Scan, concerned about the possibility of brain swelling or spinal cord damage, stopping at the hospital in Squamish for more Gravol.

When he heard that some friends in Whistler were planning on hosting a Samurai slideshow and fundraiser for him, he declined the offer of money and instead asked to make the event a fundraiser to bring a CT scanner to Whistler.

“I’m not that hard up for money and will be back to work pretty soon, but I had just read a story that Whistler was $100,000 short of getting a CT scanner,” he said. “Until I got to Lions Gate there was no way to tell if my brain was swelling or what was going on, and it really highlighted the lack of critical care equipment in the valley.

“I’ve talked with other people who have had this kind of injury, but didn’t know they were injured because the problem didn’t show up in X-Rays. People know how useful a CT scan would be in a place like this where people have those kinds of injuries. It’s a good cause and chance for mountain biking to give back to the valley.”

Hellinga has been helping to organize the fundraiser, which is scheduled for Friday, May 11, and is being called It Could Happen To You.

The event starts off with a mountain bike criterium on Cut Yer Bars sanctioned by WORCA, then moves on to Dusty’s for a Samurai of Singletrack slideshow, biker bingo, and prize draws. Sign-on for the crit is at 5:30 p.m. at Myrtle Philip, while the Dusty’s fundraiser starts at 8 p.m. Hellinga himself has been getting the draw prizes together and has been amazed by the response.

“It’s one of those things that people can relate to,” he said. “I’ve been talking to a lot of people who live here and friends who come up from the city to go skiing and biking, and needed medical care and didn’t get it. Most people have had to go down to the city,” he said. “People in Whistler are coming up with draw prizes, and so are people from the city who just come up here to recreate and would feel better if we had the right equipment.”

Through the fundraiser he hopes to turn a negative into a positive, and also get the message out to other riders not to bike on old equipment — especially when it comes to crucial parts like forks and handlebars.

You have to be a member of WORCA to take part in the criterium, which is being put together by Samurai of Singletrack organizer Tony Horn. Memberships will be available on site.

The cost of taking part is a suggested minimum donation of $15, which includes a ticket to Dusty’s. Separate tickets to the fundraiser party are available for a suggested minimum donation of $10.

Horn stresses that participants in the fundraiser do not have to be Samurai racers or even mountain bikers.

“It was all Todd’s impetus to make this event a fundraiser for a CT scanner, but it’s the perfect cause for WORCA,” said Horn. “Originally this was supposed to be a start of year party for WORCA with a slideshow, but now that’s only part of a full night of things going on. It’s a great way to start the season, and raise some money for a cause that’s important for a lot of us.”

The format for the race is still being determined, but it will likely start with a pedal up the Valley Trail to the entrance to Cut Yer Bars, followed by a lap of trails. Slower riders will be cut off after the first or second lap, depending on numbers, while the fastest riders will see their numbers cut down with each lap until a winner is decided. Most recreational riders will get at least one lap in, and possibly two.

As for the slideshow, Horn put in a call for photographs over the winter and received hundreds and hundreds of photos from racers, spectators and three professional photographers that were shooting last year’s Samurai. The collection of shots includes pictures from Colin Meagher, who wrote an article on the two-day 2006 Samurai for Bike Magazine, Japanese journalist Kajo Hiroyuki, and local photographer Robin O’Neill.

“This was the first year for the Samurai where we had so many real photographers on course, and there were spectators everywhere. I think we’ve got pictures from pretty much the entire race,” said Horn.

The 2006 Samurai was the sixth race in a seven race series, and took place over two days last September on all the most challenging trails in Whistler. The length was over 108 km, and took riders anywhere from nine hours to over 20 hours to complete.

The list of prizes at the fundraiser includes everything from a float plane drop on Spruce Lake, sponsored by Tyax Air and Slope Side Supply, to bike parts by Sram, Banshee, and others.

All participants will get one bingo card, and additional cards and raffle tickets will be sold through the evening.

As of April 1, the campaign to raise funds for a CT scanner was just $111,000 short of its goal to get the construction of the facility underway. The goal is to have the scanner operational in April of 2008.

**BOB, CHECKING FOR UPDATES