Gym class at Hancock Place Elementary School just got more exciting.
Made possible by a $9,000 donation from The David and Barbara Mungenast Charitable Foundation, All Kids Bike – a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit “on a mission to give every child in America the opportunity to learn how to ride a bike in school” – is starting the “All Kids Bike Kindergarten PE Learn-to-Ride Program” at Hancock Place Elementary School.
“Learning to ride a bike instills confidence and encourages a healthy, active lifestyle. It’s a gateway to lifelong wellness and an opportunity for the students to get movement and exercise as part of their education,” Timothy McInnis, assistant superintendent of Hancock Place School District, said. “But more than that, it’s an investment in joy and independence. The kind of learning that hopefully stays with them for a lifetime, because riding a bicycle goes far beyond the classroom, as we know.”
The All Kids Bike program includes teacher training and certification, complete learn-to-ride curriculum, a fleet of 24 Strider balance-to-pedal bikes, pedal conversion kits, student helmets, a teacher instruction bike and rolling storage. An unveiling ceremony was hosted at Hancock Place Elementary School on Nov. 14, revealing the 24 new bikes to the school’s kindergarten and first graders, as the bikes will primarily be used by them.
“(The bikes) are typically used by our younger kids, anywhere from preschool to second grade, or by any student who has not learned how to balance on a bicycle yet. You can adjust the seats so they can go up for the older elementary children,” McInnis said.
Uniquely, these bikes start with no training wheels – or even pedals. Instead, students are taught to balance and glide, and when ready, they transition to pedaling. “It’s kind of the ‘new school.’ We all learned the ‘old school’ way of riding a bike with the training wheels,” McInnis explained.
As aforementioned, the donation included one teacher bicycle along with the 24 student bicycles, allowing Hancock physical education teachers Marcie Reeves and Ben Weissflug to model lessons. This program came to be at Hancock thanks to Reeves, who spent last school year researching different grants available for PE programs in the area. After speaking with a colleague in another local district about All Kids Bike, Reeves wrote a grant proposal over the summer, and the rest was history.
“Our students will benefit directly from this donation. Some students have expe-rience on bicycles, but some do not. Some may be taught in their driveways by a parent, other students are taught at school. We’re providing that opportunity to everyone that might not get that oppor-tunity at home – that’s the most exciting part, they’re not going to miss out,” McInnis said. “And maybe some of them will even have dreams of Olympic gold, who knows?”
