STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
TIME LAPSE VIDEO PROVIDED BY BCRD
The Papoose Club is sponsoring an innovative Learn-to-Ride program teaching youngsters to learn to ride bikes.
Ernest Hemingway STEAM School will be the first school in Idaho to launch an All Kids Bike program, thanks to the help of the Papoose Club.
The club has donated a fleet of dual-propulsion 14x Strider Learn-to-Ride bikes, which start as balance bikes and convert to pedal bikes. Helmets and curriculum are also provided, and staff will be trained and certified.
Parents, school employees and students will assemble the bikes, which make training wheels obsolete, on Friday, Nov. 22. The Strider Education Foundation will offer continued support for five years to ensure the program is successful.
The donation will give 300 kindergarten students at the school an opportunity to learn to ride over the next five years. The curriculum will be implemented between Dec. 2, 2019, and Jan. 31, 2020. Kindergarten students at other Blaine County School District schools will also have an opportunity to use the bikes.
The Strider Education Foundation, a 501©(3) organization, was formed in 2017 with the idea that learning to ride can help youth lead happier, healthier lives as it gives kids a mental and physical boost.
Ernest Hemingway STEAM School Principal Tish Short was grateful for the donation: “Healthy body, healthy mind—that’s one of our mottos at Hemingway STEAM School.”
Physical Education Teacher Kerstin Flavin is brainstorming ways to use the bikes outside of PE once all the kids are rolling: “As a STEAM school teacher, I am also excited to include the students in the assembly process of the bikes to help incorporate engineering into P.E. We will be full STEAM ahead when our bikes arrive!”
The Papoose Club is a non-profit volunteer organization that supports youth-oriented groups in the Wood River Valley through fundraising activities and community events. Founded in 1954 by a group of moms, members raise funds through the Wagon Days pancake breakfast, a Webb Nursery Plant Sale and the Holiday Bazaar, which will be held the first weekend in December at Hemingway STEAM School.
OTHER PROGRAMS THAT GET THE KIDS ROLLING
The Papoose Club project is the latest of efforts to get kids enjoying bikes at a young age.
- Brian Ross and Susan Reinstein have worked with the Blaine County Recreation District to provide Miles of Smiles bike giveaways to Blaine County children for 10 years in a row.
Built on the philosophy that every child deserves a bike, the program provided new bikes to 30 local children who might otherwise go without one this year alone. The gift offers the children transportation, exercise and a way to learn responsibility and safety.
The Elephant’s Perch employees build the bikes and Mountain Rides provides free helmets.
Be sure to check out the nifty time-lapse video of the bikes being built in today’s Eye.
- Cox Communications also has gifted children with new mountain bikes for the past few years. Cox partnered with Rebecca’s Private Idaho this past Labor Day Weekend to hold a bike-building competition during the annual bike event.
Teams from the Ketchum Professional Firefighters, the Limelight Hotel and other organizations took part. And, 15 minutes later, nine Wood River Valley youngsters who didn’t have bikes of their own had shiny new bikes.