More than 60 students at Father Lacombe High School in southeast Calgary were given free bikes on Wednesday as part of a campaign to teach them how to ride bikes around the city improving their mobility.
Throughout October, Youth En Route (YER) partnered with eight physical education classes at the high school to teach 410 students basic cycling skills. Around 10 per cent of Father Lacombe High School have never ridden a bike before and another 40 to 50 per cent of students didn’t feel confident enough on a bike to ride around the city, according to YER’s executive director Laura Shutiak.
Students worked with YER volunteers to learn about bike maintenance, secure storage, cycling skills and how to navigate city streets on a bike for two weeks in October. By the end of the two weeks, the students were riding five kilometres with teachers and YER staff around the city.
But less than 20 per cent of students at Father Lacombe High School and Forest Lawn High School have bikes, Shutiak added. All students who participated in the bike giveaway were given a bike, a helmet, a lock and a small tool kit so they could pump tires and fix the bikes as needed. Volunteers also gave the students a refresher on how to lock their bikes safely.
Around 110 students will be given bikes at the high school over the next two weeks, she said.
“How can we encourage active, healthy modes of transportation if they lack the basic equipment? They need to be able to see themselves riding, and that’s why our programs in school are so important,” Shutiak told LiveWire Calgary on Wednesday.
Father Lacombe High School teacher Aimey Sashuk said the school is creating a bike club to encourage more students to ride with their friends and peers.
“A lot of these kids, first of all, don’t have the means to get a bike. Secondly, they aren’t sure where to ride a bike within the city. Youth En Route kind of showed them where they could ride their bikes, and how they could actually become commuters in our city. So that was really important, because it’s a skill that they didn’t have,” Sashuk said.
The bikes aren’t just a mode of transportation for the students, Sashuk and Shutiak said. Bikes help build communities, resilience and skills, she added, and biking has many physical and mental health benefits.
“Everybody remembers when they learned how to ride a bike. Everybody remembers who the hand was on the seat that helped them balance to get going. It’s an accomplishment. When we can give these kids that sense of accomplishment, it takes them not just places on their bikes, but it takes them around into the world,” Shutiak said.
“From the seat of a bike to a seat at the boardroom table … It teaches them things, and it helps them build skills that that you don’t even think about.”
