By Elaine Bothe
Our After School Kids Program is now in its 3rd Year!
It’s hard to know who’s more excited on day one of each term, the 3rd to 5th grade kids, or us coaches! It’s always a blast learning kids’ names while fitting helmets and assigning loaner Trek bikes for the classes–kids are so excited to see which bike they’ll be riding. (Color is a top concern). Though this is no longer our first rodeo, the magic of the first session is fresher than ever. This was the start of our third year at the Montavilla Community Center hosting kids from Vestal Elementary School, and our first time with kids at Faubion School.
At Montavilla, we had 10 kids sign up for the program, and we were excited to see five of these kids returning from last year. One new student had an older sister in our program last year, and both kids learned to ride with us! After spending the session with us, both kids were riding confidently with the group, and the younger sister was even riding her bike with no hands and doing other tricks!
Speaking of tricks, one of the highlights of this 8-class session was the “BIKE” games, which is like HORSE with a basketball. In our game the students would invent tricks like standing on the pedals with one foot out back or with both legs on the same side of the bike and more, challenging their peers to match their skills. They had so much fun that no one noticed that we never really kept score.
Other highlights, besides snack time, include neighborhood rides where kids would take turns leading the others for Follow the Leader, having fun riding up (yes, up!) and down hills, and digging into mountain bike-specific skills on the gravel and dirt trails nearby.
At Faubion, we had eight kids sign up. Two learned to ride with us during this 6-class session, one of whom was so excited to be riding that got his first bike and brought it to school so he could ride it with us.
From Faubion we got to ride to Fernhill and Alberta Parks and enjoyed the dirt trails, perfect for beginner mountain bikers! The kids quickly figured out how fun it was to fly down the hills and see how far up the opposite side they could go. We also enjoyed playing with the dogs, of course!
It truly takes a village to put on our youth programs. Each session is a joint effort between NWTA, Portland Parks & Recreation, the SUN programs at the schools, and Montavilla Community Center. Our objective is to provide mountain biking opportunities to students (especially those who don’t have their own bike) and get the kids active outside. We ride a lot, play bike games, work on mountain bike skills (as well as general cycling skills such as Rules of the Road), and generally have a blast.
NWTA and the coaches bring the loaner bikes and helmets to each location. The kids also learn about the bikes themselves, including the parts of a bike, how to pull a tire and inner tube off a rim AND put it all back together, how to adjust the fork, shift, and bike safely.
This program would not be possible without support from the staff and board of NWTA, and the staff at Portland Parks and Recreation, SUN Community Schools, the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, and the Montavilla Community Center. The heart of each session is our instructor team led by Coaches Elaine Bothe of Elaine B Bikes and Myles Ridge.
Vital support also comes from our sponsors Trek Bicycles for the loaner bikes and helmets, Scooter Sutterer for help maintaining the fleet, Lolo Racks for helping us huck all the bikes, and Portland Design Works who awarded each participant a rad new water bottle. A big THANK YOU is due to all NWTA members for their donations and their continued support of our programs.