Community rallies after theft at Kingston BMX Track

Last month, a storage shed at Kingston’s BMX track was broken into and tens of thousands of dollars of equipment were stolen. The stolen equipment was essential for prepping the track, and with a meet scheduled for this weekend, the track needed help urgently. The theft could have devastated even the most profitable small businesses, let alone a non-profit organization.

Jason Kelly of Kingston BMX explained, “It did set us in a hard spot to get things ready. We did reach out to a couple of rental companies and got some deals on some equipment to get things going. We had some manpower out here and manual rakes,” he said.

With a big rally set to take place just a few weeks later, the challenge was steep.

Get daily National news

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up

By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

“That rally gets going this weekend, and as fate would have it, the track was able to raise enough money to cover the insurance deductible for the stolen equipment. A GoFundMe raised just over two thousand dollars, and a local business owner helped pay the insurance deductible and matched the money raised from the fundraiser,” Kelly said.

1:52 Future of Brockville’s homeless shelter uncertain

Kelly expressed his gratitude: “It’s huge to see the community reach out. A small club, small organization like us, we don’t have a lot of backing behind us. It’s all volunteer-based 100%. And to see an organization like John reach out and give us some support and help, that was awesome.”

Today, volunteers are putting the finishing touches on the track before Friday night’s practice run.

Track volunteer Jennifer Webster shared, “We have to check the track since we just took the tarps off as it rained the last couple of days. So we’ll need some help picking rocks, filling holes, that kind of thing. We’ve done lots of preparing.”

Kingston police investigated the incident, but track officials say nothing has come from that. As crews continue to get the track race-ready, they are just thankful that generous donors saved the day before it was too late.