The Richmond Cycling Corps is a nonprofit that serves youth living in the East End. As a 501 (c)(3), we rely on philanthropy to serve our mission. In 2021 we saw increased generosity across the board. This type of generosity allows our small organization to continue serving our youth and allows us to dream up bigger and better ways to carry out our mission.
So, besides yourself, who are the magical individuals who donated to RCC?
Korey has been part of RCC since 2014. Seven years later and he is now riding for Kelly Benefits Strategies on their under 23 team. Early in 2021, he finally got a new bike - a full-suspension racing bike that would be a huge upgrade over what he had been riding. This is the story of how Korey would get that new bike. As told in everyone’s own words.
Matt Crane was RCC’s Director of Development from 2014 to 2017. He drove up to watch the current racers of RCC compete at the final NICA race of the season. Things have changed over the years and Matt was excited to witness and share his thoughts. He writes about some of our youth, about the state of Virginia high school cycling, and about what he sees differently about our current crop of bike racers.
Cycling and more particularly, cycling races inherently skew towards the wealthy. We are struck by this fact every year — the race fees. Since we cover the costs of all of our programming, we understand why the barriers for entry can be too high. Even if you have a bike and have enough training the races are not close and they are not cheap.
Decades of policies and actions have led to a dramatic level of concentrated poverty in the East End. Public housing structures have kept a majority Black population living well below the poverty line. From redlining and segregation to the destruction of neighborhoods, Richmond has a long history to unpack. Then, we can see how these structures are perpetuating poverty and harming its residents. Lastly, we will try to unpack what is next for the East End.
The 2021 VAHS racing season had Richmond Cycling Corps traveling throughout the state of Virginia. The first race was at the Miller School of Albemarle near Charlottesville. Then RCC took the Legacy racing team on a camping trip to Stokesville for back-to-back race days. Six of the seven students on the trip had never camped before. Read about our races and camping…
When it comes to OST programs that involve athletics there remains a gap between affluent kids and kids that are living in poverty. Children from families that have annual incomes of $75,000 or more have an 84% participation rate in youth sports. Comparatively, only 59% of children from low-income families participate in sports.
