Children on bikes are a positive signal of spring at Woodriver Elementary School.
This week, look ahead to a military of cyclists as they journey the half-mile from The Pump House Restaurant on Chena Pump Road to Woodriver Elementary School each morning from 8:45-9am.
“It’s become a yearly tradition,” stated Woodriver bodily schooling instructor Kayla Clark. “I’ve been doing it perhaps for greater than 12 years. That’s as far again as the photographs go, anyway.
The tradition started as a celebration of National Physical Education Week way back.
“That’s why I chose the first week of May to do it,” Clark stated.
It additionally tied in nicely with lesson periods on the skateboard and scooters.
“I try to layer them in the same week, doing other things on wheels,” the longtime instructor stated.
The tradition is fashionable.
“A lot of the kids in Woodriver are the ones in the neighborhood who have this flat place to learn to ride a bike,” she stated. “But a lot of children reside off Rosie Creek or the ridge. They haven’t any place to roll on a quick floor.
So this journey on the bike path with pals is especially enjoyable.
“We get a lot of little ones, kindergarten, first and second graders who feel like it’s a big ride,” Clark stated. “It’s exciting because it’s with some of their friends and classmates.”
Some mother and father drop off their children and bikes on the Pump House Restaurant parking zone and others observe, some with toddlers in jogging strollers.
Other school workers members volunteer to act as crossing guards on the two intersections younger cyclists should cross – Chena Small Tracts Road and Palo Verde Avenue.
On Monday, a hundred cyclists joined the caravan. Clark expects that quantity to enhance all through the week.
“By Friday, the kids are talking about it, the kids riding the bus are seeing us and the crowds are getting pretty big,” she stated.
The lengthy line of youngsters on bikes can also be a very visible reminder to drivers that there’s a major school within the fast neighborhood.
Clark is retiring in two weeks, after educating for 26 years, 20 of them at Woodriver Elementary School. She leaves behind a tradition of packages centered not solely on conventional sports activities, but additionally on non-traditional sports activities: in-line skating, snowshoeing, unicycling.
“Some of them are just lifelong individual fitness things,” she stated. “You don’t need a team.”
She hopes the tradition of Bike Week in May will proceed for years to come.
