POCATELLO — East Fork Bikes will be opening the doors of H&R Inline Hockey Rink at 6 p.m. Saturday for Pocatello’s Teton Gravity Research “Winterland” movie premiere. The movie draws a crowd of its own, but food, beer and raffle prizes add to the experience.

This sort of event has been happening for more years than East Fork Bikes’ owner, Ty Nelson, can remember. EFB has been involved for the last five years, but this is the second year that EFB has been the main sponsor for the event.

“We have felt it is an awesome way to kick off the upcoming snow season,” Nelson said. “(It’s) a super fun to watch the newest, most rad winter sports movies with friends and the community, and raise money for great causes.”

What makes this premiere such a valuable event for the community as a whole is that East Fork Bikes donates the proceeds to nonprofits that have close community ties.

“Both years we have been in full hosting capacity, we have donated the proceeds to PTSD Veteran’s Athletes and Sisters in Action Sports,” Nelson said.

For the second year now, Professional Transformation Sports Development (PTSD) Veterans Athletes will be one of the nonprofits that will directly benefit from the proceeds from this annual event.

“Ty from East Fork Bikes is an outstanding individual and veteran who has been helping PTSD on its mission since day one,” said PTSD founder and president, Russell Davies. “Last year when he hosted the premiere, he donated a majority of the proceeds to PTSD. Not only does the event help us with funding, but it also helps in community recognition.”

Partnering with PTSD was a no-brainer for Nelson, a veteran who served five tours to Iraq and Afghanistan and was also wounded in Iraq. When Nelson was asked why he chose to partner with PTSD, only five words were needed for him to answer: “Because it’s a great cause.”

PTSD was founded by Davies in 2012 and was originally an awareness campaign to help veterans see the benefit of outdoor extreme sports by highlighting other veterans who were elite athletes in various sports.

“I was honorably discharged from the military in 2011, and within a year I discovered kayaking to be a source of relief and rehabilitation in coping with post-military life,” Davies said. “... I learned that outdoor sporting is as reliant on its community as it is on the activities themselves. Since coming to this realization, I shaped my passion and focus around sharing the benefits of outdoor recreation with veterans of the U.S. military who are also afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. The outdoors had a huge impact on my overall mental and physical health … I truly believe it speeds up the transition back into the civilian lifestyle.”

When Davies chose to partner with EFB and Nelson, the decision was an easy one.

“Ty is a local veteran who is doing great things for the Pocatello community,” he said. “He is a like-minded veteran engaged in outdoor action sports because of this it only made sense to partner on events.”

East Fork Bikes has also partnered with Sister in Action Sports for the second year in a row for the movie premiere. SAS is a nonprofit founded in Seattle in 2015 by a group of women for women to empower each other through action sports such as mountain biking, hiking, skiing, snowboarding and climbing. SAS was formerly known as Gro Snow Girl Riders, which started in 2012.

SAS Idaho Director Kyrie Nutting became as part of the SAS movement in 2012, and when she moved back to the Pocatello area, she brought the nonprofit to Idaho in May 2018. The first planned SAS event of 2018 in the Pocatello area was an all women's hike that had 13 women show up.

“SAS loves to partner with East Fork Bikes,” Nutting said. “We have partnered on a few things, starting with last year’s Teton Gravity Research movie premiere. Last year was a great experience for us, not only getting more connected with Pocatello, but really getting the Sisters in Action Sports name out and the activities we offer.”

For the 2019 movie premiere, SAS will be receiving half of the proceeds from the raffle ticket sales.

“We plan to use funds to promote other activities and sponsorships in the local area,” Nutting said.

The event will be held at 363 Pole Line Road in Pocatello, where the doors will open at 6 p.m. and the movie will begin at 8 p.m. Tickets for the event can be bought in advance at East Fork Bikes, 346 N. Main St. in Pocatello, for $10, or on the day of the event at the door for $15. Food will be served by Dunk Burger, beer will be available for purchase, and rad prizes will be raffled off for Professional Transformation Sports Development Veterans Athletes and Sisters in Action Sports.