If Exshaw School students suddenly find themselves hoping Mother Nature delivers an early spring, it's little wonder. On January 19, the school was the recipient of 25 new mountain bikes which will be used in the physical education program.
If Exshaw School students suddenly find themselves hoping Mother Nature delivers an early spring, it's little wonder.
On January 19, the school was the recipient of 25 new mountain bikes which will be used in the physical education program. The bike event was part of the Local Motion In-School Bike Program, PinkBike's Share the Ride Program and had the support of volunteers and local bike shops.
"I'm very excited about this," said Grade 5-8 teacher and cycling enthusiast Shannon Fox. "I'll be adding a mountain biking unit to the curriculum. The bikes will be here at the school and I'll be teaching them biking in general; how to ride properly, rules of the road, some general maintenance, hand signals and safety, what happens when you put the front brake or back brake on.
"We can play bike polo in the field and we have a brand new bike park that opened up down the street, so we can ride there from the school. We can cross the highway and there's a trail that goes to the ball diamonds.
"Later, I might be able to take them to the Nordic Centre and they can get some instruction from Trail Sport and ride some trails there to get the feeling of what it is to mountain bike."
In all, for each phys. ed class, there will be enough bikes to go around for the biking portion of the curriculum. As well, biking could translate into winter biking at the Nordic Centre on fat bikes as part of the curriculum.
"I asked my Grade 5 class how many had bikes and only two put their hand up. This is going to be a really awesome opportunity for them. Hopefully, they'll fall in love with it and ask their parents for a bike.
"For me, if I'm stressed, I go for a bike ride. You need something to find a way to get out your frustration or energy in a positive way and biking's a really good way to do that."
The biking curriculum will likely start in spring once the snow is gone, possibly in April. The bikes were assembled by students and volunteers from local bike shops.
The event came about with the support of 15 community organizations, BRAVE Communications, Local Motion and Calgarian Stephen Exley, organizer of downhill mountain bike races in Panorama, Silver Star, Kicking Horse and Mt. Washington on behalf of the PinkBike Share the Ride foundation.
With about $50,000 per year raised, Pink Bike works around the world in places like Brazil, India, Nova Scotia, etc. and now Exshaw.
"Then each host organizes something specific. In India, they might do ladies' commuter bikes, in Britain, they'll do BMX bikes for a local track, in Detroit they'd do BMX bikes for kids on the local pump track," said Exley.
"So here we've got mountain bikes and we want to start a mountain bike program. Ninety-nine per cent of the time we donate directly to kids, and a school we work with will select the kids. But this is the first we're actually donating bikes directly to the school so they can create their own mountain bike program and that helps reduce theft or re-sale of bikes."
For the past two years, Exley has arranged a similar event in Calgary, but Pink Bike wanted him to move outside the city this time around.
"I talked to Paul at Outside Bike (and Ski) in Canmore and he put me in touch with Shannon here and came out here and met with her. And that's how we made the decision; it was a school decision. More kids will get to use them this way, for different grades and for a few years."
The bikes retail for about $450 and Exley believes four years of use should be had from them.
"There's the Nordic Centre and the local pump track here which these bikes are perfect for," he said. "There's $10,000 worth of stuff here (including helmets from Kali Protectives and locks from Abus) in GTs, Norco and Devinci, with GT the main sponsor (15 bikes) through PinkBike.
"This is all possible because of the Pink Bike Share the Ride Foundation. They do about 15 events a year, depending on how they spread their money around."
In organizing the event, Exley called in volunteers to assemble the bikes, take some photos and get some press for Pink Bike, then Local Motion takes over with different presenters; they specialize in safety and how to get the bikes out in the street.
"A lot of these contacts with bikes shops and CAMBA (Canmore and Area Mountain Bike Alliance) could turn into long lasting relationships and that's what we're trying to build," said Exley.
"The hardest part about organizing this is to turn people away. Once you tell them what you're doing, there are so many people that want to raise a hand and help out. A lot of these people have helped out each year.
"These are good quality bikes, they've been put together by professional mechanics and they're good to go."
As part of the festivities, the bikes were blessed by Stoney elder Virgil Stevens and Fox shared a slide show of her long distance rides to the west coast and Toronto. As well, there was hoop dancing and other festivities.
"We have seen such a great success in children who have benefitted from the program," said BRAVE Communication's Kelly Schuler. "While we first were inspired by the idea of promoting active school transportation and healthy habits, what soon became the most inspiring effect was the transformational change we saw in children."
Among the groups that made the bike donation possible is Calgary's Dinner Optimist Club, Abus Locks, Alberta Bike Swap, Calgary Cycle, SE Racing, SRAM, Two Wheel View and others.
