Doing The Hard Things – December 2025
What’s inside: Thank YOUSponsoring Adventure Teams: For kids, for the communitySponsoring Adventure Teams: From the beginning to todaySponsor Feature: AthaMADE U.P.Volunteer Onboarding coming soonTrain for Life: Even in the off season906AT 12 Days of ChristmasEvents with 906AT To all of you, I want to thank you for… Helping us launch new youth Adventure Teams this year in Ludington and Kalamazoo, and also for helping our existing teams grow, as well. We reached a record number of kids and families in 2025. Your patience as we transitioned volunteers to a brand new Learning Management System. It was a success! Special props to Julie and Marc for the countless hours they invested in setting it up, and rolling it out. Supporting this newsletter and the MADE U.P. Podcast. We’re constantly looking for ways to connect with you, and to help you connect with each other. We will keep the new episodes and newsletters coming your way in 2026. Being the reason all three events, Polar Roll, da Crusher, and Marji Gesick, each broke records for attendance – again! Your continued support of the organization and commitment to “Doing Hard Things” carried us through another great year, and has us poised for another. Supporting our local trail orgs. A portion of the registration you pay for 906AT events is given to orgs who maintain the trails our events use. This year, we donated approximately $40,000 to local trails, because of you. Donating, sponsoring, volunteering, running and/riding in the events, sharing the mission, and most importantly… Leading By Example. Everyone plays a part, and the part they play matters, a lot. Happy Holidays. “I want to encourage people to get involved in their local area.” Every year, sponsor support enables the 906 Adventure Team program to keep costs low for participating families. To state it simply, we wouldn’t be able to offer the program the way we do without the generous partners who’ve joined in our mission for the past 11 years. One of those partners is Dan Farkas with 1st Advantage Realty in Kentwood. This summer will be Dan’s third year supporting Adventure Team Grand Rapids… and his second year as a Trilogy sponsor. For Dan, his desire to give back is personal. Biking and running changed his life for the better, and he wants to carry that forward. Dan says, “The biking part got me more active, it was a keystone that changed my life dramatically, and having intent behind my life – there’s a reflection of that when helping kids around here.” It was the right time and the right place – when he stumbled into a meet-up at Switchback about the launch of Adventure Team in Grand Rapids. He now makes it a point to visit basecamp at least once during programming to see firsthand the impact he’s helping make. “It’s super important to get kids excited and moving to get out there and ride mountain bikes or bikes in general – a lot of kids don’t have the opportunity, and this is the beginning for them.” Dan says he aligns with the mission of 906 Adventure Team – he believes in what we’re doing and he believes in taking care of his community. He’s actively involved in not just 906AT but as a steward for the trails and the spaces we all recreate in – something he wants everyone to take part in. “I want to encourage people to get involved in their local area. I’d really like to see people become trail adopters, trail coordinators, volunteer their time – it takes a village. It’s a lot of work spread amongst dozens – hundreds of people – to get involved and be a part of that – it’s something awesome.” When he’s not helping people find their perfect home at 1st Advantage Realty, he’s volunteering, riding, and training for his next 906AT event. He’s finished the MG50 twice and admits he’s got a bit of unfinished business with the MG100, which might turn into a run in the duathlon. Regardless, he’s committed to bettering the community around him – and continuing to be part of the solution. He’s currently helping to raise funds for Johnson Park in the Grandville area to expand single-track opportunities there and provide a space for thousands of kids to ride. Thanks for all you do, Dan, for your community in West Michigan and ours in the Upper Peninsula and all those in between.By Elizabeth Peterson “It’s pretty cool when I’m walking around the mine and I see someone in a Marji Gesick or Adventure Team shirt.” When Eagle Mine first began sponsoring 906 Adventure Team programming over eight years ago – Matt Johnson, the External Affairs Manager for Eagle Mine says it felt like supporting a startup in the community. The foundation of 906AT was just being built. But the fundamentals and the mission of the organization was set and aligned with Eagle Mine. “As a company we have certain values that we want to promote in our host communities – one of them is supporting youth development, which can be defined in many different ways and in many different activities,” explains Matt. “906AT offers us the opportunity to support the positive of getting kids outdoors in a way that’s not competitive, it’s not pitting one child against another – but rather, having an adventure.” Matt says because of the growth, the success and the positive brand recognition of 906AT, Eagle Mine has continued to support the organization over the years. He recalls some of the kids that were in the program those first years have now graduated college. It’s been a full circle experience for him. “Over the years and the developing success – 906AT has created its own social culture and part of the social culture encourages employees and children of employees to participate in Adventure Teams and events. Whether that was parents dropping kids off or volunteering, participating for events or volunteering for events,” says Matt. “It’s pretty cool when