The Big Brothers Big Sisters Bike for Kids Trans-Canada Challenge is only in its second year, but already is seeing a steady increase in participants. In total, 52 riders registered for either the 10km or 21km trail ride Saturday which runs South of Altona to Gretna.

Kerri Bennett is a Big Brothers Big Sisters Case Worker and Volunteer Coordinator. She says, "We have community mentoring, in-school mentoring, and we also run a group program called 'Go Girls.'"

Bennett says, "Right now we have five current [mentoring] matches, and we run about two groups per year. It looks like we'll have another five matches starting up this year."

Over $10,000 was raised this year, and all of the funds are going directly back into supporting these Altona mentoring programs, which have been running for three years.

She started in Winkler, but was interested in expanding the program to Altona, and it has been extremely successful and important to the community.

Maxine Penner rode for the first time in the event, noting it was also her first registered ride ever. Penner says her motivation to join the fundraiser came from being "drawn to the community of it . . . and also a lot of encouragement from family and friends."

"It's going towards a great mentorship program, which I think has a lot of value because it's right in our community, here. We're just kind of loving on each other here in Altona," she says.

Penner adds, the length of the ride and the weather was not something she was too concerned about, she simply looked forward to having a great experience with the other participants.