Top: Forty-two third grade students participated in a bike safety education program at Sawtooth Elementary and Great Expectations School in May. Above: Looking sharp in their bicycle helmets, these kids are ready to ride!
This May, you might have seen a group of safety vest-wearing kids on bikes in Grand Marais. Forty-two third grade students participated in the first year of the Bike Safety Education Program at Sawtooth Elementary and Great Expectations School. Students received four sessions of safety and skills instruction in the classroom and gym, followed by one session of on-the-road biking with the instructor and helpers.
Students learned important safety and biking skills, including the ABC Quick Check (Air – Brakes – Cranks and Chain – Quick releases – Check it over), helmet fitting, rules of the road, and safe biking skills like power pedaling and scanning.
“It was fun to see how excited the kids got about biking and to see how they each gained new skills and improved greatly over the two weeks. I look forward to seeing the students out this summer on their bikes,” shared Maren Webb, the Safe Routes to School Coordinator who assisted with the program.
Mark Spinler, League Cycling Instructor and co-owner of Superior North Outdoor Center, was the lead instructor for this inaugural year, using the Bike!Walk!Fun! curriculum from MnDOT and the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota. The Walk! Bike! Fun! curriculum is written to encourage more children to walk or bike to school and throughout the community by providing schools with tools to teach safe walking and biking.
“One parent shared that since her child participated in the program, she no longer has to repeatedly ask her son to wear his bike helmet: he puts it on automatically,” said Webb. “These kinds of small changes will help keep our kids safer, as over time all students will receive bike education when they are in 3rd grade.”
The Grand Marais Safe Routes to School group launched this new program with support from the State Health Improvement Program (SHIP) and a Safe Routes to School mini-grant from MnDOT, and with volunteers from the Superior Cycling Association, the Active Living Steering Committee, and the local Safe Routes to School program. A previous Safe Routes to School grant enabled the schools to purchase a small bike fleet, with eight bikes and helmets that were used for this course.
The Safe Routes to School group is currently updating its Safe Routes to School Plan, which includes education programs such as this. Safe Routes to School programs include the five E’s: Education, Encouragement, Evaluation, Engineering, and Enforcement.
For more information about Grand Marais Safe Routes to School, contact SRTS Coordinator Maren Webb at maren@sawtoothmountainclinic.org or 218- 387-2330.
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