Today’s “How We Live” section of the Oregonian features a nice, big front page piece about taking care of your bicycle’s basic maintenance needs at home. I thought our Walk + Bike Challenge participants and partners might find these DIY TLC tips useful after a month of riding to school – and inspirational for those of you who plan to keep riding all summer long.
Walk + Bike celebration at Beach School
After reading through the bike maintenance tips my eyes wandered to left of the page and a sobering column by Carrie Sturrock titled “Give Kids A Nudge Outdoors.” The first part of the column sounds familiar: we know that kids spend too much time inside staring at the screen, and not enough time outside experiencing the natural environment.
But two things struck me in particular. First, in a time of greater environmental and ecological uncertainty for our planet, our children know less about the challenges they might face in their natural environment than any children before them.
Second, as Bill McKibben of 350.org points out, kids who don’t experience nature as their teacher do not understand that they are a very small part of a world that is very large; rather, they are told they are the center of it. Our children, who are not allowed to explore THEIR world, will not know what it is they are being left to “fix.”
Which brings me back to the Walk + Bike Challenge. I hope that you have all had an opportunity to walk or skate or bike to school or to the farmer’s market or even just to a neighbor’s house with your kids. I hope that those experiences have given you and your kids a rich view of the world, or even just a better view of the neighborhood. Thank you for taking the opportunity to be surrounded by the places you live, work, and play, and for letting your kids experience the world they are a part of.
If you’re interested in other opportunities for staying active and outdoors with your kids, here are a few options coming up.
We leave you with some colorful photos of the final week of the Walk + Bike Challenge:
Beach School Bike Train
Beach School Bike Train
Highland Elementary
Mt Hood Cycling Classic Kids race, June 4th – The Dalles
Walk + Bike to Baseball, June 11th – Portland
Kidical Mass, June 19th – Eugene
Sunday Parkways, June 27th – Portland
Treasure the Beach V, July 4th – Seaside
See you out there, and thanks!
Don’t forget about Kidical Mass in Salem! The next one is on Sunday – day-after-tomorrow! See Kidical Mass Salem for details and more.
The Eugene Kidical Mass ride is also our Walk + Bike Challenge Month Celebration. It’s the “Bike + Boat the WIllamette”: A huge mass riding up the river and 40 kids floating back down. Then BBQ and Coconut Bliss at the end!
Will be a great way to kick off a summer of riding in Eugene!
Thanks for coordinating the Challenge month, our first this year. Lot’s learned!