One of the great benefits of being part of a non-profit club is that our members vote each year to use a portion of our annual dues to provide support to a variety of local and national charitable causes. Since its inception, Austin Jeep Exclusive has provided thousands of dollars to a wide range of worthy charities, including the Austin Disaster Relief Network, Operation Blue Santa, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, and The Salvation Army. It’s not all about money – club members also donate their time and energy to build new trails and cleanup existing trails at places we wheel. A significant portion of our financial giving is directed to causes with close ties to our sport and AJE is incredibly proud to be an official partner of Tread Lightly! and annual supporter of Wheelers for the Wounded – Texas.
Tread Lightly! and its partners lead a national initiative to protect and enhance recreation access and opportunities by promoting outdoor ethics to heighten individuals’ sense of good stewardship. In short, Tread Lightly! provides a tremendous service to our sport by promoting and providing education around the responsible use of the trails we ride on, including removing litter to keep trails cleaner than we found them. Many AJE members have mesh trash sacks hanging from their spare and everyone is encouraged to pick up debris from the trail and deposit it in the nearest trash sack. Tread Lightly! also advocates for continued and expanded access for motorized recreation on public lands. That doesn’t have much of a direct impact here in Texas, but it is enormously helpful in maintaining our ability to wheel on public lands in states like California, Colorado, and Utah.
Wheelers for the Wounded – Texas provides wholesome activities for our veterans and their families to encourage self-esteem, boost morale and help them expand pride in themselves while increasing awareness of the struggles they contend with on a daily basis. Through donations and raffles at various wheeling events, they raise a tremendous amount of money to help support wounded veterans in our area. They also hold the annual Main Event, where wounded veterans and their families ride passenger for a day of rock crawling with members of our and other Texas wheeling clubs.