How to get involved.

MATR organizes a number of group activities as well as undertaking advocacy work on behalf of trail runners across the province. We have a variety of opportunities to help MATR pursue its mandate. If you have the skills and time to contribute to one of the roles, please contact us.

Get Your Membership

One of the first ways you can support our activities is to get your membership to the organization. By getting a membership you demonstrate that you support the idea of giving trail runners a voice to advocate for trail access and you want to help the trail running community help maintain the trails we love.

As a member you show everyone that you’re not just a trail user; you’re a trail supporter.

Join Us For Trailwork

As part of our core mission, we organize trail work days (we call them work parties because they’re a BLAST!) throughout the year.

Trail work includes things like clearing dead-fall, trash clean-up, trimming around trail signage, installing signage, etc.. In the winter our trail work activities include trail packing on snowshoe to improve the user experience on trails for multiple user groups.

• Participants will be required to use hand tools like loppers and/or portable saws.

• Participants should be able to carry a pack with their own water/snacks for the day as well as have the stamina to cover the distance travelled on foot for the trail work (5-15km).

All participants must complete a waiver and email it to info@matr.ca before joining us. The waiver only needs to be completed once per calendar year.

You can check our Event Calendar for up-to-date information on each trail work day as it becomes available.

Become a Snowshoe Leader

We're looking for people to help as snowshoe leaders/coordinators.

You'd help us manage our snowshoe days by planning and leading stomps (and finding other leaders). The amount of coordination will depend a lot on snowfall over the season! Some periods may be busier than others. If you don't want to commit to organizing but would be willing to lead a group, let us know, too!

Email us if this sounds like something you can take on!

Be One of Our Group Run Co-Leaders

Can you help us during our group runs? We're looking for cheerleaders to help us co-lead group runs. Our group trail runs are for runners of all abilities, regardless of whether it's their first time on a trail run or their 1000th.

We are looking for co-leaders to help by leading the rabbits at the front, and/or partying at the back of the pack so that everyone feels supported. Occasionally we can use help with course marking or picking up our flagging.

If you’d like to help us host a group run in your area of the province, let us know! Help us lead one or many runs, we’re always happy for the help, whether you can help on a recurring basis or dedicate yourself to just one.

Let us know if you'd like to help!

Attend a Group Run

We'll be hosting self-supported group trail runs at least once a month on different trails around the province, featuring as many single track trails as we can find.

We have picked a number of trails around the province to run together. We’ve also scheduled a number of Winnipeg urban trail runs for the winter. Check our event calendar, Instagram, or Facebook for updates as route changes may happen based on trail conditions.

Help Us at a Trail Race

As MATR continues to look for opportunities to support the trail running community, we are partnering with race directors to have MATR hosted aid stations or information booths at local trail races.

If you can help us run one of these at an event in 2024, Let us know!

Other Ideas

Do you have another idea for how you could contribute to MATR? Let us know!

Join a Committee.

Much of the work that MATR does in fulfillment of its mandate is accomplished in working committees. Working committees are composed of volunteers who, depending on the committee, meet in person or rely on online communication to develop and implement small projects.

Do you have time and enthusiasm to share? We’d love to have you on one of our committees:

• Trail Work Committee – this committee organizes trail work days on behalf of MATR. Members of this committee help the Trail Work Coordinator by scheduling dates, recruiting and training volunteers, and organizing the supplies (such as hand tools and snacks) needed on trail work days.

• Education Committee – this committee creates materials and social media content to raise awareness of trail running and responsible trail use.

• Membership Committee – this committee is focused on attracting and retaining members by ensuring MATR listens to members’ needs, meets their expectations, and provides them with value.