You are hereKid Bike Rodeo happens TODAY! Thanks Social Cycling ATX for the volunteers!
Kid Bike Rodeo happens TODAY! Thanks Social Cycling ATX for the volunteers!
I'm not really posting this as an opportunity to do something, but to recognize some of the things that are happening out of the spotlight of the typical Critical Mass/Social Cycling/Pub Crawling/Allycatting crowd. This afternoon marks the launch of Austin's first Freiker program. The word is an amalgam of the words "frequent" and "biker", and is aimed at increasing ridership amongst school children by counting trips, awarding prizes and encouraging safe and regular cycling as a valid form of transportation. Leslie Luciano of Bicycle Sport Shop is the main person behind this initiative, and I'm excited to see how it works out. Read on for more details on the bike rodeo:
Ok everyone. Here is a great opportunity for you to do something fun and help out with a great biking event FOR KIDS. We are going to provide volunteers for the Patsy Sommer Elementary School Bike Rodeo that kicks off a program to promote biking to school.
WHERE AND WHEN: Friday, February 5th around noon. We will meet at Bicycle Sport Shop's central location and carpool up to Patsy Sommer Elementary School.
WHAT: We are going to help over 1000 kids get fitted with helmets, make sure their bikes are in good working order and run a few safety courses to teach the kids how to safely bike to school. The whole event is going down to kick off the Freiker program at the school. It's a high tech version of the commuter challenge that will track each kid's trips to school and let them see their results on the internet. More here: http://www.freiker.org/bp/How_It_Works
HOW: The school is pretty far north (http://tinyurl.com/yeng3lc) so we are going to carpool from the Bicycle Sport Shop's central location (http://tinyurl.com/ycrznw9). We will meet at noon and be back around 7 on friday. After we are done we are heading to A LITTLE PARTY I have arranged for the volunteers.
IMPORTANT!!! RSVP for this event as well as EMAIL ME AT:
with your contact information so that we can arrange a carpool.
Everyone, this is a great opportunity to give your time to help kids become as excited about cycling as you are. It's going to be a blast!
-Keith http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1610994666&ref=name
Keith and the Social Cycling ATX crew organized the volunteers for this event, who have been trained on basic bike tuneups and fit, as well a how to properly adjust a helmet and bicycle safety procedures. I work a square job during the day so I can't check this event out but I wanted to mention that all y'all volunteers who are doing this are BADASSES! Thanks for imparting something good in the next generation of cyclists.
It's these kids that make the fight for the Nueces Bike Boulevard and increased infrastructure so important. I'll ride whether they give me incentives or not, but someday I want to see families and their kids riding to the Children's Museum downtown from their Hyde Park houses without fear of cars or buses. The current system does not support this, and I think the current system needs changed. Thanks again volunteers for being an implement for that change.
