Spokane Bicycle Club members pictured L to R:
Jim Brown, Cyrus McLean, Tim Arneson, Paul Eichen, Michael Conley, Al Koscal, and Charlie Greenwood.
After an extra long and snowy winter, Spokane Bicycle Club volunteers ushered in the best sign of spring for eager bicycle riders – a workday to tune up 60 BMX bikes for Spokane Public School teachers to use in health and fitness classes. The club checks the bikes over each spring and fall so that teachers can concentrate on their students and the important safety curriculum for 4th through 6th graders.
The John P. Jundt Head Injury Foundation awarded a grant to replace worn tires and parts this year through the Bicycle Alliance of Washington. The BMX bikes have been in use since 1992, and were purchased with donations from Spokane Firefighters Local #29, Spokane Police Guide, Aurora Northwest Rotary, The Downtown Rotary Foundation, Qual-Med Health Plan and North Division Bicycle Shop.
The Jundt foundation also provided funds so that mountain bikes used in Middle School and High School physical education classes will receive a professional tune-up by North Division Bicycle Shop before spring and fall classes. The Jundt foundation has helped support the bicycle education curriculum since 2005. Children learn to fit their bike helmets, check over their bikes for mechanical soundness, practice bike handling skills, and age-appropriate traffic skills such as riding on right side of the road, hand signals, and obeying traffic laws.
In the last two years, all health and fitness instructors in Spokane Schools were offered a training program, Road I from the League of American Bicyclists, to improve their riding skills and knowledge of safe riding habits. Training was due to a unique grant that was received with the cooperation of the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce, Spokane Regional Transportation Council and Spokane Public Schools.
Submitted by Eileen Hyatt
