As part of the city-wide Safe Routes to School Program, Culver City Walk & Rollers is hosting a Bike, Walk & Scoot Festival at Culver City Middle School to teach kids essential bicycle and pedestrian safety lessons in a fun, engaging event. The free, family-friendly event will take place on Saturday, July 26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with activities throughout the day for all ages.
The Festival is part of the City of Culver City’s city-wide Safe Routes to School Education and Encouragement Program designed to encourage more children to walk and bike to school more often and more safely. The Program is in coordination with the Culver City Unified School District and underscores the value of healthy, active living and especially the fun of non-motorized transportation in an effort to reduce traffic and pollution near school sites.
The Walk, Bike & Scoot Festival aims to reach children of all ages and features a series of bicycle and pedestrian skills stations that children progress through, receiving instruction in starting and stopping, avoiding hazards, turning and signaling and yielding. Participants also receive guidance in how to properly fit their helmets and check their bikes before each ride. For many children, the highlight is the group ride on neighborhood streets with trained instructors where they put their new knowledge into practice.
In addition to the bicycle skills activities, the Festival will include a bike crafts area where kids can make their own spoke card, race plate or custom button, group walks lead by Walk with a Doc-Culver City, and adult workshops that cover best practices for walking, biking and driving kids to schools.
Pro Scooter riders, Arthur Plascencia and Chandler Dunn of Team Vault, will be on hand demonstrating their championship scooter moves. Plus, Chubby’s Bikes will be on site to provide safety checks and light tune-ups for all the kids’ bikes.
“This is an excellent opportunity to build enthusiasm in a safe, controlled environment”, explains Culver City Safe Routes to School Coordinator Jim Shanman. “It’s a great way to re-introduce the joys of biking and walking not just as a fun activity, but as a way to get to and from school as well.”
To make the event as accessible as possible, extra bicycles and demo helmets will be made available, so kids without bikes are also able to participate, including a limited number of free helmets for kids that don’t have one.
For more information on Culver City Walk & Rollers, please visit: www.ccWalkAndRoll.org.
For more information on Safe Routes to School, please visit: http://www.saferoutespar tnership. org/.
Walk ‘n Rollers is a non-profit organization whose mission is to encourage children, through education and training, to bike, walk, skate and scoot to school more frequently. We work with schools to develop sustainable walk/bike to school programs, host Kids Bike Skills Workshops and Walk ‘n Roll Festivals and work with cities to implement Safe Routes to School education and encouragement programs. Walk ‘n Rollers is a project of LACBC. For more information, persons visit www.walknrollers. org.
