Community of Bike Ambassadors (Coba) founder Chris Foggin said it was fantastic to not only be nominated for the Outstanding Community Recreation Programme award twice but to also be a finalist twice as well.
Mr Foggin said the outcome of the awards did not matter, as being recognised as a finalist was more important to him.
"It’s the recognition that is more important, that ... on a national stage we get a mention that the program’s starting to be successful in Central Otago."
Mr Foggin had the idea to found Coba after attending a conference in Scotland where he learned about bike patrols done by police.
After learning about the programme, he had the idea to transfer the programme to Central Otago but instead of a focus on enforcement and regulation he wanted to focus on educating riders.
We have a big or we had a big gap in our region in terms of bike education, in schools and also out about on the trails where we’ve got literally tens of thousands of tourists riding them."
Mr Foggin envisioned ambassadors being a "happy helper" on the trails, helping riders with minor repairs and injuries or directions if they were lost.
In the two years since the founding of the Coba programme 60 adults have gone through the three-day training programme and by the end of term four 100 school students will have gone through the two-day school programme.
Both courses involve bike training and the adults spend two days Mr Foggin. A first aid training day is held for both courses as well.
Mr Foggin said he hoped to continue growing the schools programme year by year and continue to offer the adults course.
