You know how it is, students can never seem to get enough time in bed. But BCIT Radio Arts & Entertainment students aren’t too tired for a little friendly competition! Tomorrow, May 15th, BCIT’s newest unsanctioned club, The Bedracing Club, will come together in Cloverdale to compete in the Annual Pre-Rodeo Cloverdale Bed Races.
Lead by captain and founder Noah Schmidt, the team is called the EVOLUTIONARIES, named after the Evolution Storytelling Company. Runners will also include Filip Budd, Matthew Lin, Makena Schmidt, Jessica Smithson, Caleb Trepanier, and myself, Lizz Kerschbaumer.
None of the other Radio Arts & Entertainment students have participated in the Bed Races before, but this isn’t Schmidt’s first rodeo. In 2023, he started a bed racing team for his high school, École Brookswood Secondary School, who still compete to this day. He competed with Brookswood twice, once as a student, and once as alumni. This will be his third time competing in the races. Schmidt’s past teams built their own bed frame on wheels, but this year, he will be assembling a loaner frame from the event staff.
Schmidt, pictured above in the Canadian-flag cowboy hat, poses with the team he founded for Brookswood Secondary.
Schmidt will also be representing the Radio Arts & Entertainment program in the 77th Annual Cloverdale Rodeo Parade at Cloverdale Town Centre soon after, on Saturday, May 17th at 10am. Anticipation has been building for months. With a majority-radio department club, it’s no surprise we can’t shut up about this event.
This is the 47th annual Bed Race. People of all skill levels participate. The Pre-Rodeo Bed Races began as a race between the RCMP and the local fire department in 1976 to promote the rodeo. Both of those jobs require being fitter than we have to be… The competition’s pretty strong, so we might not place, but that won’t stop us from giving it our all and showing some Evolution spirit! We have custom T-shirts and handmade paper hats, and we’re already doing our stretches. We’ll be easy to spot in our Evolution colours, black and orange.
Teams in the Cloverdale Bed Races have 7 members. 6 runners push a bed frame on wheels with a rider atop it. The main event will be made up of six heats run elimination-style, and we will be competing as a “mixed” gender team. The races will begin at 6:15, and you can watch from 176A Street, between 60th Avenue and 64th Avenue. Come out and show us some love!