We kicked off our Fall 2016 Bike Education season with a “Bike Rodeo” at The Springs Festival this past Saturday, September 10th. Our Safe Routes to School crew set up a bicycle skill/safety course, gave away free helmets, provided bike safety checks, and offered free valet bicycle parking. Over 100 kids & adults participated in the course!
The Springs Festival was a grass-roots collaboration between The Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, Supervisor Susan Gorin’s office, Sonoma County Regional Parks, Sonoma County Economic Development Board, Springs Community Alliance, La Luz Center, Sonoma Valley Community Health Center, Sonoma Valley Hospital, Nuestra Voz, and ArtEscape. The Festival was a celebratation of the completion of the long awaited safety and beautification improvements on Highway 12, including sidewalks, street lights, curbs and gutters, and new paving as well as progress on other important initiatives in the area.
In addition to the bike rodeo, there were booths by numerous local businesses and non-profits, art and sporting activities, food vendors, a dunk tank, and much more. It was a great day and SCBC was proud to be a part of it! A grant from New Belgium Brewing Company enabled us to coordinate and staff the event. A big thank you to Wine Country Cyclery and CamelBak for donating bikes that were raffled off at the event, and a shout out to amazing teen volunteers from Hanna Boys Center and Teen Services Sonoma. It was truly a community effort, and we couldn’t have done it without so many great partnerships. The Springs Festival Bike Rodeo is the first of close to 20 on-bicycle education events we will be doing this Fall – contact Tina Panza for more information re: locations, dates & volunteer opportunities!