Recreational Trail Association launches annual membership

Sun Peaks Recreational Trail Association (SPRTA) has begun their annual membership drive and is looking for people to become members for 2022.

Sam Loxton, president of SPRTA, said as a non-profit organization, the association offers the community the opportunity to become paid members. Loxton said this is important for SPRTA for a couple of reasons.

“The main big one for us is the fundraising aspect,” said Loxton. “From those membership sales, we get funds that are then used for things like insurance, they go into tool maintenance or tool replacement, and trail maintenance.”

Loxton said membership is also important as a way to show the government, the resort and grant programs that SPRTA has strong support within the community. 

“If we have lots of members and a really big, strong membership base, we can say ‘look, we have this high proportion of people in our community that are behind us and supporting what we want to do,’” said Loxton. “That helps us when it comes to asking for fundraising support and permission to build more trails.”

Memberships run annually from January to December. Loxton said in 2020, SPRTA had about 275 members. In 2021, that number jumped to 388. For 2022, they are hoping to reach over 400 members.

Loxton said although many members live in Sun Peaks, they also have members from Kamloops or the Lower Mainland who have houses in Sun Peaks and like to visit in the summer.

“But considering Sun Peaks is a pretty small community, it’s pretty amazing to have almost 400 people sign up as members of SPRTA,” said Loxton.

Becoming part of the organization also has its own benefits for the member. Loxton said members receive voting rights at the annual general meeting, can participate in events, and receive other perks such as discounts at stores.

Although the pandemic has prohibited a lot of events from happening over the last couple of years, Loxton hopes that will change for 2022.

“We’re really hoping that this year things will start getting a little bit better on the event side of things and we’re really focused on setting up some really fun events for the community and for our members,” said Loxton.

There are three different types of memberships available: an individual membership for $20, a family membership for $45, or a business membership for $100. Those who are interested can sign up online at sunpeakstrails.com.

Loxton said once SPRTA begins running events in the spring and summer there will also be opportunities to sign up in person.

“We’re really excited about this year because we will have those new trails on Morrissey that should be open by early to mid-summer,” said Loxton. “There should be lots of great stuff happening out on the trails this summer with SPRTA. We really appreciate everyone that supports us and is going to sign up as a member to help us have a big summer.”