A homegrown outdoor community keeps on growing thanks to Summit County sisters with a vision.
“My business partner and sister, Leanne, and I truly believe in everything that we’re doing,” Kelley Wren tells Krystal 93. “We are participants as well. I am a mountain bike coach. She is our main avalanche educator.”
Kelley and Leanne are co-founders of VNTRbirds, pronounced “venture birds,” where they organize women and femme-friendly outdoor meetups and skills clinics.
Like so many great ideas, theirs was born relatively small.
“We started as these group community (mountain bike) rides, where maybe four to eight people would show up,” Kelley says.
That was five years ago. Today, they are bigger than ever, merging with the VIDA MTB race series and hosting events in Crested Butte, Winter Park and Boulder.
“Now, we have to cap our community rides because 45 folks are showing up,” Kelley says. “It is incredible. In our skills clinics we’ll have up to 60 women and femme folks showing up. Not only is this a women and femme-driven environment, we are curating all of our skills clinics and lessons so it’s not just copy and paste. It’s whatever you want to get out of it.”
Earlier this year VNTRbirds won its second grant through Women of the Summit, a local nonprofit with decades in Summit and recent meteoric growth.
VNTR Birds’ first grant went to diversity education. This year’s grant goes to the sister’s next big step – sustainable business.
“Leanne and I are so good at creating events and creating community,” Kelley says. “But when it comes to actually budgeting and managing those finances, it was really great to work with Women of the Summit and their business boot camp.”
But what’s it like to work with your sister? Kelley laughs.
“Most of the time it’s the best working with your sister,” she says. “And then sometimes our friends have to be like, ‘Your sisters are showing. It’s time to stop arguing with each other.’”
VNTRbirds is hosting events every month in Summit and across the states. Up next? Possibly international excursions.
Follow what they’re doing on Facebook and Instagram.
Images courtesy Katie Young and VNTRbirds.