SANDPOINT — Early registration for the 18th annual CHAFE 150 Gran Fondo opened last week, and organizers said they are hoping for a repeat of last year’s successful event. 

Mariah Williams, race coordinator for CHAFE, said in addition to putting on an enjoyable event, the organizers are looking forward to bringing people and a positive impact to the community. 

"It brings 100 people to town every year in that shoulder season and so not only are we raising money for education, but it has a big impact on the community,” Williams said.  

Organized by the Sandpoint Rotary, the ride is also a charitable event which raises money for the Lake Pend Oreille School District’s ‘Every Student Graduates a Reader’ program. This last year, the rotary donated $80,000 from the event’s efforts to LPOSD, according to Superintendent Dr. Becky Meyer. 

The program uses data to track individual students to identify which students need help and where the focus needs to be. Even though the initiative is only a few years old, Meyer said the district has already seen positive growth in its reading scores. 

"We do diagnostic assessments, and they diagnose where there might be gaps in a student’s learning, and then we have specific programs that help a student in that skill set,” Meyer said. “There’s reading in every facet of life so it’s really important to our district that every student graduates a reader.” 

Meyer said the money that the CHAFE raises primary goes toward training and staff, who help implement the program. At a City Council meeting in September, Meyer said the funding helped save 189 students from illiteracy before graduation. 

"This has helped increase the staffing and have smaller groups that they’re working with,” Meyer said. "It takes a lot of work and passion from Rotary to be able to support our school district, and we truly appreciate it and the help it gives to our students.” 

Williams said the event takes over 100 volunteers on race day to take care of the riders, a majority of which are Rotarians or family members. Before any riders take off from the starting line, the event is carefully planned, advertised and built by oversight groups throughout the year. 

The ride will still feature its 150-, 80-, 40- and 25-mile road routes in addition to 75- and 55-mile gravel routes. For the road routes, the trip around the Cabinet Mountains remains unchanged from last year’s ride. 

Williams said organizers might be making changes to the gravel route due to the historic flooding that took place around Clark Fork in late 2025. The old route followed Lightning Creek Road, which was hit hard and partially washed out during the storm. 

The exact changes are unknown at this time as the route team is still coordinating on a new route.  

Another change coming to the ride is the location of its post-ride party, moving from the lawn in front of the now closed Best Western Edgewater to the lawn at City Beach. Williams was a staple of Sandpoint City Council meetings over the summer to ensure the ride was not displaced from City Beach during the hotel’s closure and future construction. 

On Oct. 15, the council voted unanimously to amend the city’s open container code to allow for the post-ride party to remain at the iconic location. 

“We're doing amazing things for education; we have the most beautiful ride and the best supported ride you can participate in,” Williams said. "This year is hopefully just a repeat of previous beautiful years." 

More information on the ride and sign up is available at www.chafe150.org.