Summit County’s 100-plus nonprofits have worked to find clever ways to craft events that encourage community engagement despite the COVID-19 distancing restrictions. The Bike Jam 2020 was one valiant effort made by Mountain Town Music and Mountain Trails. However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the event is canceled for this year.
Mountain Town Music Executive Director Brian Richards says they organized a thoughtful, safe, public event that would bring music door to door throughout Summit County.
“We reached out to Mountain Trails about a month ago to pitch the idea of doing a biking event along with our door to door series, which we are bringing to the Summit County community all summer long,” Richards said. “We program concerts in neighborhoods and cul-de-sacs and back yards all throughout Summit County. And we thought, well how about we do something that involves bikes where we do some door to door concerts in various areas throughout the County and then have people bike back and forth. We had a few meetings and we organized this event that was going to be called Bike Jam 2020 and we actually sold 120 tickets in about six hours.”
Mountain Trails Executive Director Charlie Sturgis says it's a difficult decision to cancel but he respects the advice from Summit County Health Director Rich Bullough.
“We really took that to heart,” Mountain Trails Medical Director Herb Lepley said.
Richards says the event was scheduled for July 24 but with the positive response, they intend to bring it back next year if they're able.
“There’s no precedent for what we're experiencing right now and we have these ideas because we want to support our community, because the community is struggling right now and what we want to do is just come up with things that are fun right and provide a little levity.,” Richards said. “But we have to do so responsibly, and we ultimately have to listen to our public leaders.”
Richards hopes to bring a Bike Jam 2021 to Summit County next year. Summit County’s 100-plus nonprofits have worked to find clever ways to craft events that encourage community engagement despite the COVID-19 distancing restrictions. The Bike Jam 2020 was one valiant effort made by Mountain Town Music and Mountain Trails. However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the event is canceled for this year.
Mountain Town Music Executive Director Brian Richards says they organized a thoughtful, safe, public event that would bring music door to door throughout Summit County.
“We reached out to Mountain Trails about a month ago to pitch the idea of doing a biking event along with our door to door series, which we are bringing to the Summit County community all summer long,” Richards said. “We program concerts in neighborhoods and cul-de-sacs and back yards all throughout Summit County. And we thought, well how about we do something that involves bikes where we do some door to door concerts in various areas throughout the County and then have people bike back and forth. We had a few meetings and we organized this event that was going to be called Bike Jam 2020 and we actually sold 120 tickets in about six hours.”
Mountain Trails Executive Director Charlie Sturgis says it's a difficult decision to cancel but he respects the advice from Summit County Health Director Rich Bullough.
“We really took that to heart,” Mountain Trails Medical Director Herb Lepley said.
Richards says the event was scheduled for July 24 but with the positive response, they intend to bring it back next year if they're able.
“There’s no precedent for what we're experiencing right now and we have these ideas because we want to support our community, because the community is struggling right now and what we want to do is just come up with things that are fun right and provide a little levity.,” Richards said. “But we have to do so responsibly, and we ultimately have to listen to our public leaders.”
Richards hopes to bring a Bike Jam 2021 to Summit County next year.
