Students Get Bike Smart

Students anxiously wait for the bicycling program being offered this spring at Martinsville Middle and Laurel Park Middle School. "We've been looking out the window at where the bikes are and can't wait to ride them" indicated one middle school student.

Working with our corporate partner, Cardinal Bicycle on Orange Avenue in Roanoke, Activate was able to bring thirty-five bikes to be used in physical education classes in both middle schools.

Thanks to the PE teachers that have embraced the Bike Smart Basics, a SOL certified program, it has now been added as a program within their classes. Hopefully this new program will excite kids who normally do not take PE as an elective class.

Working in the rain to load and unload all of the bikes, City Shop employees and Activate staff enjoyed every minute of it. There is just something magical about bicycles. Maybe it is that childhood memory of that first bike, learning how to first ride the bike or maybe it is just that connection to how simple life used to be.

Special thanks to City Employees: Steve, Chris and Clyde for loading and unloading the bikes and to Lane and Leon for providing the assistance!

Seeing those smiling faces of the students and being greeted by them as we pulled in the trucks hauling the bikes and being able to be part of that excitement brought sunshine to a very rainy day!