Bike Events for National Bike Month
Here in North Adams, MA we have created the Berkshire Bike Committee and we are in the process of organizing bike week from May 13-19, coinciding with the Commonwealth bike week. We are looking to promote bike safety and education in the school and are looking to team up with Safe Routes to School through Mass DOT for this, to bring this into classroom, there are many people that have said we need more time in order to plan a bike to school day than we have now, and that many schools will not be on board for this. Has anyone had to work with schools that were against biking to school, if so what are some tips to break this barrier? Also ideas to include bike safety and education and activities around bikes in schools?
To conclude the week we are going to have a bikefest, including bike rodeo, are there any other ideas out there that we could include on this day for kids, adults and/or families? We have a central location where we will be gathering for this and would like to keep activities in this area. We have talked to local businesses for incentives for biking.
Any ideas for donations/grants for bikes, helmets, or bike related items?
Also open to ideas others have done around bike week, bike to school/work day, and bike month?
Thank you for the help!
*Amanda Chilson* *Project Coordinator Mass in Motion* *Northern Berkshire Community Coalition** *61 Main St. Suite 218* *North Adams, MA 01247* *413-663-7588 Ext. 14* *nbccoalition.org*
Show some bike films and/ or video clips from YouTube as a group, early in the event time like a weekday night to get it warmed up...
Have video cameras around with trusted adults to record your events and show the output back to participants. Show this years next year as warmup. Repeat as necessary...
Please excuse the typing, very small keyboard...
On Feb 28, 2012, at 11:44, Amanda Chilson achilson@nbccoalition.org wrote:
Bike Rodeos are fun... re: helmet money... we just asked Stewarts Shops our locally operated convenient store empire to donate money towards a helmet drive and got a $500 check back in the mail within a week! Bike Art Parade!
On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 11:44 AM, Amanda Chilson achilson@nbccoalition.orgwrote:
Thank you for the ideas! I love the idea of a bike art parade.
On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 6:52 PM, Andrew L breathingplanet@gmail.com wrote:
We do Bike Month in Colorado in June for some reason, but during the Bike to Work Week, we kick it off with our fundraiser cruiser ride "The G'Knight Ride" June 16th, www.gknightride.org. Because we're limited on volunteers we promote existing events, by encouraging people to ride bikes instead of driving.
We also concentrate on organizing social rides throughout the week. We have a meetup site that draws quite a few riders, we also have a long established cruiser ride on Wednesday's "Longmont Bike Night" that draws about a hundred people per week. Wednesday June 22nd is Bike to Work Day here, so we'll have the usual breakfast stations in the AM, then an afterwork Happy Hour Cruise and our weekly "Longmont Bike Night", too.
The City of Longmont and our downtown association do a great job creating summer programming, We have concerts in the Park on Tuesdays and Concerts Downtown/street dances on Friday nights. We promote these events, too by encouraging people to bike. Our downtown concert bike valet service helps to draw people too.
I'd say it's easiest to identify the well attended events that already exist in your community, then promote them by encouraging people to ride their bikes. Then take lots of pictures of people riding bikes to and from the event. It's easier and cheaper to coordinate a group ride than to do an event.
This year's Bike to Work week will stack up like this:
Saturday June 18th - 2nd Annual G'Knight Ride - www.gknightride.org Sunday June 19th - TBD Monday June 20th - Organized Group Ride to a desitnation TBD Tuesday June 21st - Organized Ride to the City of Longmont's Concert in the Park Series Wednesday June 22nd, - Bike to Work Day - Breakfast Stations in the AM, Bike to Afterwork Happy Hour, 6:30p Longmont Bike Night (www.facebook.com/longmontbikenight) Thursday June 23rd, Organized Ride to Concert at the Longmont History museum, Friday June 24th - Bike to the Downtown Concert Series & Bike Valet, plus our on going "Bike Tunes Ride".
I like the idea of the movies - We may talk with one of our breweries to show movies at their restaurant or perhaps in the brewery itself.
We are also going to work with our Downtown Developement Authority. They've put a new focus on merchandising the windows of downtown businesses, we're going to work with shop owners to make bicycles part of their displays. We may do a "people's choice award", too. We'll see.
I hope these help.
Ryan Kragerud, President Bicycle Longmont www.facebook.com/bicyclelongmont
On Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 12:45 PM, Amanda Chilson achilson@nbccoalition.org wrote:
participants (4)
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Amanda Chilson -
Andrew L -
Jerry -
Ryan Kragerud