Partnership teaching BCSD students to ride bikes

Published 8:19 am Monday, November 28, 2022

CREATE Inc. and the Baldwin County School District are partnering to teach children a skill with lifelong benefits. 

According to Toyia Barnes, director of CREATE Inc., the nonprofit began back in 2009 with a musical component in which they taught kids instruments and singing. It then moved into other areas including dance and eventually to recreation. 

“Our goal was to get kids doing activities outside and not necessarily always online and on a tablet or a phone,” she said.

The goal led to a cycling program in which middle and high school kids who are members have taken rides all over Georgia and in other states like New York, Oklahoma and Texas. Since students in the program are given so many opportunities for traveling and learning, it was immediately a popular activity choice that parents wanted to get their kids involved in. There was just one problem though — many of the kids who were interested in joining didn’t know how to ride a bike. 

To remedy the problem, CREATE Inc. has started a program within Baldwin County School District that teaches kindergarten students how to ride a bike. The program was piloted at Midway Hills Primary School. Principal Tara Burney is already seeing the positive results.

“I think it’s teaching them to have confidence in themselves,” she said of the students. “It’s really building character because they’re helping each other and encouraging each other to not be afraid to try, and it’s also building leadership skills… Our kids are really excited about what they’re learning.”

Instructors and volunteers are brought in during physical education classes to teach kids the foundational skills they need to master before becoming efficient riders. Barnes said the first thing that’s done is the removal of training wheels. 

“Our goal is to first teach them how to balance…,” she said. “If you can balance a bike, you can ride a bike.” 

Once they conquer that skill, they eventually move on to more complicated components like scooting, gliding and maneuvering. 

Barnes said the hope is that once students learn the skills, they will have a hobby that will last a lifetime which promotes physical and social health along with wonderful experiences.

“Studies show that if a child loves to ride and becomes an avid rider now that they’ll take that habit and become a rider as an adult.”

As more kids have learned to ride a bike, Barnes said the out-of-school program has grown to include kids of all ages as long as they can ride a bike. Their youngest is 8. Kids ride at a variety of skill levels. One group just finished the 27-mile One Love Ride in Atlanta, and older kids travel distances up to 60 miles. Barnes said the trips the group takes always have an educational component. They’ve participated in a Selma to Montgomery ride, visited Black Wall Street in Tulsa and took part in the Harriet Tubman Freedom Ride in New York among many other experiences.

“They’re doing that fun and enjoyable activity outside, but they’re also learning something as well,” she said.

Barnes said the plan is to expand to each elementary school within the district. It costs about $6,000 to place a fleet of bikes along with helmets and protective gear at each school. Sponsors for Midway were Community Baptist Church , The Center for Health and Social Issues and Outride. Once more sponsorships are in place, she said they will be able to add the program at additional schools. 

Daylon Martin has been a volunteer for almost five years, and he has recently been working with the students at Midway.

“The joyful youth of kids and the exuberance they bring to the learning environment makes it real simple, especially when it’s something they’re interested in like cycling,” he said. “They quickly grasp the concepts, they understand what we’re trying to do… and even for the kids who are just out there for the fun of it, they understand following the instruction to get them from walking a bike to scooting on the bike to eventually gliding and making maneuvers; they’re grasping it rather quickly.”

As an added bonus, Burney said the program ties in with another academic goal set by the school. She said students who have met certain goals and have had perfect attendance at the end of the semester and end of the school year are entered in a drawing to win a bicycle. There’s a great chance now that the winner will know how to ride it.

For more information about CREATE Inc. Cycling Programs or to find out how to become a sponsor, visit www.createwithus.org, or call Barnes at 478-387-0200 or email toyia@createwithus.org.