Bike & Roll to School Day was May 5th, and Denver residents joined
with people nationwide to celebrate active transportation as a way of getting to school. We were lucky enough to hear from two Denver students about their experience getting to school by bike.
This was the first year celebrating Bike & Roll to School Day for one student, and the other has been celebrating now for a couple of years. When asked what made them decide to participate, one said that they like getting the exercise in, and the other responded that Bike & Roll to School Day is celebrating a sport that they
love! Furthermore, they both added that when the weather is good (above 45 degrees, specifically), biking is how they generally arrive to school. What made this particular day extra fun, they shared, is that more people rode to school, so they had the opportunity to bike with lots of friends (and wearing a favorite shirt for one was another way to mark this day as special!).
When asked what can be done to help more kids bike to school, they
wisely responded that making bikes cheaper would be a great way to help, as well as offering to ask other kids to join their friend group and to be a role model in biking to school.
Photos from Bike and Roll to School Day 2021
In an effort to make biking more accessible for children across Denver, this year Denver DOTI, The Trust for Public Land, Bicycle Colorado were proud to sponsor bringing the All Kids Bike program at two Denver schools in the upcoming year: Castro Elementary in Westwood and McGlone Elementary in Montbello. To celebrate Bike to School Day, our small team of volunteers built a fleet of 30 strider bikes for Castro Elementary, which they’ll use for a bike education program in their physical education classes starting in Fall 2021. Strider or Balance bikes are a great tool for building confidence and excitement in young folks by learning how to balance, steer, and maneuver on a bike before learning to pedal. Here’s what Michael Whittlef, Physical Education Teacher at Castro Elementary School, had to say:
“This bike project is so important for our school because some of the students here at Castro would have never been given an opportunity to learn to ride a bike. It gives the children a chance to get out and explore their own community through a new way of transportation that they may have never gotten before. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for this amazing bike program.”
We are so happy to have received some insights on how kids can get
to school in an active, healthy, and fun way! Even though Bike & Roll to School Day this year was different (like so much else), 53 schools in Colorado still registered to participate. If you also celebrated, we’d love to hear from you! Additionally, if you’d like to stay informed about all sorts of fun and important things happening in Denver, you can register for our newsletter at calc@denvergov.org and follow us on social media at @denver_calc.