Text and Photos
By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WINONA LAKE — Four volunteers have been recognized for their dedication to Kosciusko County Velo Cycling Club and its Fat & Skinny Tire Fest.

KCV honored Jenna Faas, Ryan Prince, Nick Hauck and Fred Helfrich with awards on Saturday night, May 20, at Miller Sunset Pavilion in Winona Lake as part of this year’s festival.

The first two were honored with the club’s Robbie Gast “Ride On” Volunteer of the Year Award, named in memory of one of the club’s founders. The latter two received the new President’s Award.

“An organization doesn’t last for 20 years without dedicated and passionate people, especially who are looking to improve our community, so that’s why we created the KCV President’s Award to recognize individuals who have either partnered with KCV or been a member and active in the group for a long period of time,” explained Club President Mike Cusick.

He then stated why Hauck was one of the award recipients, noting he’s been involved with KCV for more than 15 years.

“He’s the hardest worker I know, and he’s there whenever needed,” said Cusick. “He shows up even when you don’t expect him to be there.”

He noted Hauck has been club vice president and is currently treasurer.

Cusick said Helfrich had been involved with the club for 15 years.

“He’s driven our bicycle-friendly business and bicycle-friendly community initiatives over the last 10 years, and he’s highly involved in the (local) Ride + Walk (Advisory) Committee, and he’s a lot of the reason why we have so much great infrastructure developed and being developed in our county,” said Cusick of Helfrich.

Maria Demopoulos, wife of Club Vice President Greg Demopoulos, then explained about the Robbie Gast Award as she came up with it following Gast’s death in 2011.

She noted “Ride on” was something which Gast said a lot.

“So we always look for people who are going above and beyond with things in the community involved in cycling, people who are advocates for cycling no matter what, people who drop what they’re doing to come help (with) anything to do with cycling, not just during the festival,” said Maria Demopoulos.

Gast’s mother, Nancy Gast, also one of the club’s founders, then shared about her son.

She said he enjoyed “combining the best of things: riding (bicycles), friends and family.”

“He and the rest of our group knew that the bike festival would be a great way to bring all those things together,” she said.

Robbie’s daughter Ella Gast then carried up mugs to present to the winners.

Greg Demopoulos then shared more about the criteria for the Robbie Gast Award.

“We’re looking for somebody who goes above and beyond, that steps in, that makes a difference and not just for the festival and not just wearing the staff shirt, but throughout the year,” he said.

“So this first winner is somebody who has helped us tremendously with organization, helped us with volunteers, helped us with the trails, helped us with the future bike park and has gone above and beyond in those areas and has also one of our lead certified instructors, someone that has made a huge difference behind the scenes,” said Greg Demopoulos before naming Faas as one of the winners.

Of Prince, Greg Demopoulos noted he’s “helped with the trails, helped with the festival a ton, been on a lot of the local rides helping guide people.”

That includes Prince helping mark 100 miles for Fat & Skinny’s countryside tour, said Greg Demopoulos.

Those present then made a toast in honor of Robbie Gast.