Bike Safety Rodeo

What exactly is a bike safety rodeo?  Previous to this event, I did not know....  When I was a kid, you got a bike, you climbed up, you fell a few times, but you learned to ride it, and off you went!  Yes, you had spills and lots of scraped knees and bruises and bangs, but you learned how to ride a bike from one end of town to the other.  Our parents never taught us the safety part of it.  I wonder if they even worried about us!  We took off and we rode everywhere with not a care in the world.  We didn't even wear helmets!

But times have changed and teaching your young child the rules of riding and the do's and don'ts of bike safety is important.

Lions Tommy Dawson and Joe Molburg headed up the committee to put this event together.  The rest of us just showed up to be safety gurus and keeping the youngsters in line!

So what exactly IS a bike safety rodeo?  It's a clinic to teach young children the skills and precautions to riding a bike.

You set up a series of exercises for the child to practice their skills as a bike rider.  You have others watching to make sure they don't get hurt riding through this course.

In our case, the kids started with a safety check of their bike.  Brakes were checked.  Tires were checked for air pressure.  Kids were made sure they had a helmet (or one was offered at a small fee).  Next they were asked to ride from point A to point B which was actually a fake cross walk.  There were Stop signs and the kids were being watched to see if (1) they STOPPED at the crosswalk and (2) if they got off and walked across to the other side.

We had Officer Jim Esbenshade from the Juneau Police Department there and he talked to the kids about bike safety.  We had a whole slew of other community helpers from the President of the PTA to Boy Scouts.

The first course was a circle and the children were asked to ride inside the boundaries, as slow as they could go.  The purpose of this exercise was to see how well they could control their bike.

Lions Mike N., Tommy D (in the middle) and Joe M.

This course above was to monitor how a child rode their bike from a wide point to a very narrow point. Were they cautious?  Paying attention to what was changing?  Were they able to stay in bounds?

From here, they went to the next course where they were asked to weave in and out as slow as they could go.  This also showed how well they could control their bikes.

All in all, the children were having a great time and hopefully they learned a thing or two about bicycle safety and the rules of the road.  If not...maybe next year.  

Thanks, Lions Tommy and Joe for setting this event up!  

We Serve!

Lion Nancy