Kona has been an
International Mountain Biking Association corporate supporter since 1994, and has developed fundraising projects including the Kona Buck-A-Bike program, the Kona Bro Deal program, the
Interbike bowling tourney and Kona/IMBA Freeriding grants. The Kona/IMBA bowling party, held at Interbike from 1998 until 2007, raised money for NEMBA, a New England IMBA-related advocacy group. Its purpose was to help purchase a large area for mountain biking by funding the KONA/IMBA freeride grants. The Kona/IMBA Freeride grants helped clubs throughout the US and Canada including:
Rapid City, South Dakota;
Grand Junction, Colorado;
Hood River, Oregon;
Coquitlam, British Columbia;
St. Charles, Missouri;
Surrey, British Columbia;
Anderson, Indiana, and
East Burke, Vermont. The grants helped build freeride features on trails, as well as building dirt jump parks in parks. For 2008, Kona sponsored the IMBA Epic Rides program, helping fund four new rides throughout the United States and Canada. The trails set aside as Epic rides for 2008 were the Mid Mountain Epic in
Park City, Utah; Comfortably Numb in
Whistler, British Columbia; the trails sponsored by PAMBA outside of
Peoria, Illinois, and the Loon Lake Epic in
Tamarack, Idaho.
Kona Africabike In 2006, Kona began its largest advocacy effort to date -
BikeTown Africa. The Kona Africabike was a bike built in partnership with
Bristol-Myers Squibb and Bicycling Magazine. The Kona Africabike was designed specifically to assist health care workers treating
HIV and
AIDS patients with the delivery of home health aids and other services in African Cities, starting with
Bobonong, Botswana and
Gaborone,
Botswana. More recent projects have included Delft and
Stellenbosch. For 2008, Kona pledged to donate 1,000 Africabikes for the project and due to the overwhelming customer support of this project, Kona set up a non-profit/humanitarian organization from their European HQ in Geneva, Switzerland called Kona Basic Needs. This organisation's aim is to continue to raise more funds and awareness of the Kona Africabike program and to continue the donation of these bikes. . ==References==