Lara, or anyone else interested in working with PE programs,

Boulder Valley School District (BVSD, in Boulder, CO) has launched a program this year or last called "BLAST" or Bicycle Learning And Safety Training (i think). It's in conjunction with several local PE classes. It's pretty awesome. I was involved early in the process when they were looking at different curricula. In the end, I believe they went for an already existing one from the Bicycle Transportation Alliance out of Portland, OR.

I would suggest getting in touch with Landon Hilliard at BVSD:  landon.hilliard@bvsd.org. He's the alternative transportation coordinator for the district. Manages buses, bike to work events and issues, all that sort of thing. He's also the one who lead the charge to get the BLAST program up and running. From what I hear, it's been a huge success.

I believe they solicited donations from a local bike shop, not the local not-for-profit shop. They got a fleet of new or refurb'ed bikes for the class to use. They belong to the class, not the students. The plan was to outfit an out of commission bus with bike racks, so that the bus could drive the bikes to different schools for when the program was happening. (ie, Tuesdays at school A, Wednesdays at school B, etc).

If anyone's interested in hearing more, I'm happy to dig some and report back. I've not been involved in the program for a year or two, but I believe it's off and running, and has had some amazing feedback already.

And lastly, I would caution against approaching local community bike shops for outright donations of complete bikes. I don't want to speak for everyone, bit it's a request we get a lot, and one that puts us in a tough position. Some sort of mutual aid or reimbursement is much more amicable and usually doable. See if the school district, USA Triathlon or a local bike shop/distributor would have some kind of funding or bikes to provide for this.

Hope that helps.

josh.




On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 9:08 AM, Tara <windshifts@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks for the responses!  The school program would be geared towards fitness and not competition.  The bikes would not need to be a tri bike, in fact most youth coaches prefer children stay away from that type of bike.  Road bike frame and even mountain bike frames with slicks on them would work for this type of program.  

All thoughts are welcome,

Tara


On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 8:15 AM, Austin Amos <aamos1977@gmail.com> wrote:
Many of the co-ops have an "earn-a-bike" program where the kids are students in a course to build a bike if their own. The addition of a training or competitive outlet for their use of the said bike would be a benefit to both programs (earn-a-bike and training).

What does everybody else think?  Please "weigh in" here with your comments.

Austin Amos
Sent from my iPod

On Oct 7, 2010, at 9:47 PM, Tara <windshifts@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I work at a National Governing Body, USA Triathlon, and I am working on youth programming.  As of right now the program is an awareness program.  The thought is to bring a coach into schools to introduce triathlon to the kids.
>
> A next step, down the road, would be to bring a multisport curriculum into the Physical Education programs.  One major hurdle to this would be equipment.
>
> Now my question to the listserv- would bike co-ops be interested in being involved in such a program by way of donating bicycles and hosting a cycling safety educational component?
>
> I'd appreciate any thoughts on the subject.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Tara McCarthy
>
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