It’s been two years since Carla Rae Carey was recognized as part of TD Bank’s Thanks You Campaign, and she is still just as dedicated to the Squamish dirt bike community.
What started out as a small group for Carey’s own children has turned into Stoke Builders, a youth program teaching the up-and-coming generation all about dirt bike riding.
In 2022, Carey was given the surprise of a lifetime when a date night with her husband turned out to be a film crew waiting for her at Cat Lake with all her friends and family.
Everyone was gathered to shoot a commercial for TD Bank that was honouring Carey for her service to her community.
Two years on Carey told The Squamish Chief that “the dirt bike world has grown exponentially.”
“In Sept. 2023, we had a race, and we had like 38 kids show up … and then this year in May, we hosted another one, and we had 82 kids show up for that,” Carey said.
“The same thing happened with our adult racing. We had 180 people in Sept, and then in May, we had 290.”
Carey said dirt biking has evolved to become a family activity in Squamish.
“I think that it's really underestimated how much of a family activity it is,” she said.
“Unless you came from a family that was maybe involved in the past, you didn't necessarily know the whole scene existed.”
Since her recognition with TD, Carey said she has been able to get some big name dirt bike racers come to Squamish and give coaching lessons to the kids.
“I've had some pretty awesome pros come and guest teach for the program. Trystan Hart and Sam King were here in the Spring.
“Trystan has the number one plate for North America so that was very cool to make happen.”
Team Canada heads for Spain
Carey is gearing up to head to Spain in October for the Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme International Six Days of Enduro as a manager for Team Canada.
The ISDE race held on Oct. 14 to 19 is the world’s oldest off-road motorcycle event.
“I've never been so I have this imagination of what it's gonna be like, but I'm sure it's going to be 50,000 times better,” she said.
“It's going to be six days of non-stop racing and Team Canada has the biggest contingent that we've had in several years, we've got 21 racers going from all across the country.
“So I have the Olympics in my mind with all the countries together with their flags. It’s going to be a really neat experience for sure.”
Carey said she hopes to use this experience to develop programs to prepare young local riders for high performance races like the ISDE.
“Some of these kids will be the ones that end up going on to race at ISDE and represent our country,” Carey said.
“Up until now, there's not really been any sort of program, or even necessarily a strong race platform where these kids can learn and train.
“So my intention with learning how to manage the team and getting involved at that level is so that we can start to build programs for the ones that are coming up.
“We've got amazing talent in Canada but we don't have the programs to necessarily support that.”
Carey has also started her own non-profit called the Stoke Moto Society to raise funds for her program, which she says was inspired by her TD recognition.
“Up until this point, I have mostly self-funded the program,” she said.
“The TD award made me realize that there's corporate funding out there that doesn't necessarily have to do anything with the motorcycle industry.
For anyone who wants to get involved with Stoke Builders or the Stoke Moto Society, visit Carey’s social media pages.
