Board of Directors:

Ari Kornelis: Secretary

As a board member, Ari brings skills from his day job as a project manager and clean energy researcher. 

Ari has loved bikes since he was a kid riding around his neighborhood in Holland MI. Ari commuted to school and work on bikes in cities from Holland, Alma, Lansing, Washington DC, and Portland OR. One of Ari’s favorite pastimes is gathering friends to join fun rides like the Zoo-de-Mack or the Ladd’s 500 in Portland (a 500 lap relay around a big traffic circle). Ari also puts his (novice) mechanic skills to use as a volunteer for Free Bikes 4 Kidz Detroit. Recently, he has been dipping his toes into the world of gravel bike racing. 

A bike can empower a young person to independently navigate their community and beyond. I want to help more kids learn to explore safely.  I can’t remember when I first learned to ride a bike, but I do remember learning to balance a bike with no hands. After practicing for hours riding laps around a campground, I finally had the confidence to navigate turns with just a subtle shift of my weight. I want to teach kids to ride to share the overwhelming sense of accomplishment and freedom that I felt in that moment. 

Christie Tracy: Treasurer

  • As a board member, Christie hopes to share the passion and joy that bikes have brought to her life with others. She learned to ride a bike as a child, and loved exploring her neighborhood, getting lost in her imagination and the feeling of freedom as she rode through the local forests and parks in her hometown of Virginia Beach, but there were no cycling programs in her neighborhood or schools, and she lost touch with her bike and the adventure and joy that it brought when she was 7-8 years old. She re-discovered the joy of cycling in her mid-30s and it has re-opened a bright new world of adventure, travel, community, and friendships. She now wonders where her bike may have taken her if there had been cycling programs in place in her local community as a child, and she hadn’t lost touch with the joy of riding her bike for such a long time. 
  • Christie re-discovered cycling in her mid-30s, and after spending her teenage and young adult years playing every sport under the sun but never really finding one that she was passionate about, she knew she had found “it” the moment she took the first pedal stroke. She has struggled with ADHD and racing thoughts much of her life, but found that when she clipped into her bike pedals and started riding, all of the background noise in her head faded, and it was simultaneously the most peaceful and exhilarating feeling that she’d had in a very long time. Ever since that day, you’ll rarely see Christie on a bike without a highly contagious ear to ear grin on her face. She set some pretty lofty goals right out of the gate (Win a National Championship!) and the discipline, work ethic, and tenacity required to achieve those goals on the bike has carried over to other areas of her life as well. 
    Christie is an accomplished multidisciplinary cyclist. She co-manages a Women’s Domestic Elite Cycling Team, rides and races road, gravel, eSports, and time trials, and has recently discovered her love of the adventure and exploration that comes along with bike packing. Her niche is Ultra Distance Racing, and she has won multiple 12 hour, 24 hour, and 500 mile Time Trial US National and World Championships. Not a stranger to dirt, she’s also competitively completed Unbound XL, Gravel Worlds Long Voyage, the Inaugural Great American Wheel Race, and quite a few multi-day bike packing adventure races across the US.
  • I wasn’t a very athletic child and struggled to learn to ride a bike but clearly remember the feeling of accomplishment and when it finally “clicked”, my dad let go, and I took my first unassisted pedal strokes. For the next several weeks, she built confidence, riding a little further, and eventually venturing off the pavement onto the dirt trails that ran through my neighborhood. The feelings of adventure and independence that it gave me were incredible! I want to share that feeling and enable as many kids as possible to (safely) explore their world on two wheels. The bike is also such an incredible tool for building community and lasting friendships, and these are such integral parts of development for kids! I really wish that my community or schools as a child had some kind of cycling program in place, and I’m honored to be a small part of helping to develop this type of program for the children of Plymouth – so that they don’t lose touch with their bikes as I did!

Matt Seagrave: Founder/Director

With over a decade of experience spanning education, nonprofit leadership, program design, and data-driven strategy, I bring a mission-focused, dynamic approach to empowering youth and building inclusive, results-oriented organizations. My work across K–12 education, elite athletics, nonprofit management, and fundraising has been anchored in equity, innovation, and long-term impact. At Make-A-Wish Michigan, I served as Rider Experience Manager, where I redesigned the 300-mile Wish-A-Mile Bicycle Tour, enhancing logistics, safety, and participant engagement to elevate both the rider experience and fundraising outcomes. At Mile High 360, I led the creation of a multi-year academic and cycling curriculum for an ADHD research initiative and transitioned programming online during the COVID-19 pandemic to maintain consistent community impact. My leadership extended to statewide professional development for educators as a Colorado League MTB Coach. As founder and Head Coach of M3GA Coaching, I have guided athletes to world titles and national championships through a development-focused, goal-oriented methodology aligned with youth leadership cultivation. My early career in education included implementing individualized supports, leading PBIS initiatives, and designing professional development—foundational experiences that underscore my commitment to adaptive, data-informed environments that foster growth, belonging, and sustained success.

The bicycle has been an integral part of my life for as long as I can remember. From riding to school by myself as a 4th grader, experiencing my first taste of independence, to exploring different parts of the world as an adult, the bike has always represented freedom, possibility, and discovery.

Over the years, I’ve seen how the bicycle can open the world and a world of possibilities for others as well. In my work with students, I’ve witnessed how the simple act of riding a bike can become transformational. It’s helped kids gain confidence, secure their first jobs, and even take the next step toward college or university. For some, a bike was their ticket to opportunity.

Community Sponsorship & Development

Curtis Edmunds