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Race to the finish line Fort Resolution man constructs BMX bike track for youth
Kassina Ryder
Northern News Services
Published Monday, July 29, 2013
DENINU KU'E/FORT RESOLUTION
Kevin Forrest is leaving Fort Resolution with his family this fall, but bike riders in the community will have something to remember him by.
Kevin Forrest sits with his sons, Gaige, 9, and Preston, 5. Forrest is constructing Fort Resolution's first BMX bike track for youth before the family moves to Alberta this fall. - photo courtesy of Lacey Forrest |
Forrest is building the community's first BMX bike track near the outdoor swimming pool. The track will be complete with manufactured hills and big turns for racers.
"I Googled a design for a BMX track and basically took pieces out of there and made it my own," he said.
Forrest said it is being constructed with all ages in mind.
"I'm not exactly making the hills so extremely high, I don't want little monsters on there getting hurt," he said. "At the same time, older kids are going to be able to enjoy it as well."
Forrest said he got the idea to build the track after noticing how popular bike riding is in the community. His own children, nine-year-old Gaige and five-year-old Preston, are both avid bike riders.
The community was looking at ways to improve activities for young people and began building a new soccer field near the swimming pool. The BMX track will occupy the other half of the soccer field area, Forrest said.
The project has received support from many. Students in the heavy equipment operator program at Aurora College are helping to construct the soccer field, he added. The Fort Resolution Metis Council is providing $5,000 for the BMX track and the hamlet office has been donating equipment, Forrest said.
Forrest, who works as an equipment operator at De Beers' Snap Lake mine, said he has been spending his weeks off working on the track.
As of July 23, Forrest said the track was about halfway completed. He expected to finish it up by the weekend of Aug. 16.
Forrest's wife, Lacey, will be attending Grant MacEwan University in Alberta in the fall, so the family will be leaving Fort Resolution.
Lacey is originally from Fort Resolution and her husband is from Yellowknife. The family had been living in the community for about two years, Forrest said.
Forrest said he hopes he gets to see kids using the track before the family moves.
"We're going to try and hold a BMX race before I leave," he said.
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