Volunteer Spotlight - Kyra Evans, Hunters Range Snowmobile Club

Volunteer Spotlight - Kyra Evans, Hunter's Range Snowmobile Club

Volunteering is something that has always been an easy commitment because I grew up in a family that was heavily involved in the snowmobile community. My Grandpa was a founding member of the Kelowna Snowmobile Club (KSC), and my Dad also was a very active volunteer within the KSC. When I was a kid, we attended every KSC event, went to club meetings, and spent weekends playing around the cabins while the adults were stacking firewood or doing cabin maintenance. It was a family affair!

In 2009 I became a volunteer 4-H leader of the Horse club in Kelowna, and while this was the start of my volunteering journey, it took me on a bit of a hiatus from sledding. When I became pregnant with my first daughter in 2013, I stepped away from that role. This was when I started to become more involved in the snowmobile community again. My husband Justin and I would attend firewood work parties, and club meetings for both the Kelowna Snowmobile Club and the Hunters Range Snowmobile Association (HRSA). Justin was also a groomer operator for Kelowna, and we had our second daughter in 2016. In 2018 we moved from Kelowna to Enderby, Justin took over the presidency position for the Hunters Range Snowmobile Association, and I joined the board as a Director.

Since then, I've served multiple positions, starting out as the club Secretary. I also took over running the club's social media to try to grow our audience on the Facebook and Instagram platforms. At the end of last season, I changed from Secretary to Collections Director, and our board also created a Public Relations Director position to encompass the social media management, content creating, website overseeing, email answering and dealing with general club inquiries I was already tackling. Being the "get it done" personality type, I also took on the club's sponsorship & advertising, revising it slightly and growing it significantly.

Justin and I planned our first Club Ride Day back in January, and I recently brought back and planned the HRSA Ladies Ride at the beginning of February that was extremely successful! Some days club duties feel like they consume all my time, and other days it's simply answering a few quick emails. You can find me spending anywhere from 30 min to up to 4 hours a day on club business depending on what's going on in our season. That's on top of being a Mom, running a home-based daycare and managing a small hobby farm. In an average season we can see upwards of 6,000 volunteer hours logged between directors performing their position duties to work parties like firewood stocking, cabin maintenance, signage installation, SnowCat maintenance etc. Some years large projects add on even more hours!

Don't let that scare you from volunteering, it is also extremely rewarding. Without volunteers to run our clubs, we could lose access to the amazing areas that we escape to. I want my kids to be able to enjoy the beautiful and diverse terrain that Hunters has to offer, so I put in the time necessary to make sure our club is thriving and on the right track for our future generations of shredders. I've also met new friends because of my involvement with the HRSA, and I've learnt new skills because of volunteering that I would have never experienced.

If you haven't volunteered for your local club yet, you should give it a shot! Volunteer burnout is a real struggle, and I can guarantee you, your clubs Directors will be thrilled to see new faces stepping up to help out! So whether it's helping out at a work party, or making the choice to fill a vacant position in a club's Board, I challenge you to reach out and see how you can get involved with organized snowmobiling! #supportyoursport

~Kyra Evans, Hunter's Range Snowmobile Club (Enderby, BC)