Rallye organizers contacted us in Feb 2017 to train U.S.A. Gazelles competitor Kiera Chaplin for the March event. This international women's competition originated in 1990 and spans eight days through the Moroccan desert.  Over 300 women compete navigating only with map & compass. This amazing event also provides humanitarian aid to local villages along the Rallye route. To help train Kiera and NORA students on sand recovery, we added a new obstacle at our Ellenville training center appropriately named 'Dune du Gazelles'.
      

In Spring 2016 we were consultants to the TOP GEAR UK TV show for filming the Tesla Model-X episode. We provided pre-filming logistics for the producers and led them on scenic mountain road tours of the lower Hudson Valley.  While our facility was not featured in the show, our NORA trails received rave reviews from the Top Gear Reconnaissance team.

We met with top officials, attorneys and park rangers in the summer of 2016 to discuss the possibilities of opening select lands within lower NY State for legal wheeling. We spent a day with the group at a location in their jurisdiction so they could experience off-road driving in 4-Low. While no decisions have been made to date, NORA will continue to try to influence NY State to open up public lands for full size recreational off-road vehicle use.

It started out as a request by our friends at OK4WD and Jeep Girls Rock! to hold a free mini-training class for 10-15 women in the fall of 2016. As the event drew closer the numbers increased. We are proud to say we held the 3-hour class for over 100 people (60 women drivers + their passengers). It was an amazing day as NORA's Scott, Jon, Rich and Suzy helped the ladies learn the basics to build confidence and safely take their rigs off-road. Special thanks to Rausch Creek, an awesome place to wheel.

Team NORA believes in giving back as much as possible. We donate time, services and gift certificates to select non-profit charities and fundraising causes. Some recipients to date include:  Anderson Center for Autism, Family of Ellenville Food Pantry, Christmas Angels (Ellenville), Ellenville Scoresby Fire Department, TD Foundation for Wounded Warriors (New York, NY), Winter hat drive c/o Sprague & Killeen Insurance, Sparrows Nest, Ulster County SPCA, Blue Mountain Middle School Career Day (Westchester, NY), eba dance theater, Croton Rotary, Center for Spectrum Services, Ellenville Police Toys for Kids and Wings for Warriors @ Ellenville Airport.

We were invited to bring a rig to MCCC for a club member happy hour in summer 2015. The toughest things about this gig were the NYC traffic, and not stealthily swapping our Wrangler for a Lambo when leaving! Many club members were drawn to our NORA rig among the awesome collection of exotics, and Scott & Suzy were living large for a few hours.  Several MCCC club members drove that very rig on NORA trails over the next several months and experienced an adrenaline rush at 3mph. Special thanks to Jeanette & Joana.

While not a NORA event, we are very proud of this one which took place pre-NORA. As members of Hudson Valley 4 Wheelers club, NORA staff Scott Trager, Andy Miller and Butch Froehlich participated in the first group to deliver 22 foot sections of iron to rebuild the aging Mt. Beacon fire tower. Over the next several years, the club (including NORA instructor Jon Mapes) ferried iron workers who volunteered their time to restore the tower. Local politicians and stakeholders were also ferried up for the dedication ceremony on 6/22/13 in this great example of using our off-road skills to give back to the community.  Click here for more info on the Fire Tower