Last Saturday saw a bike rodeo as far west as you can be in Iowa without falling in the river.
Tamera Albert of Grace United Methodist Church coordinated her first rodeo and it went off smoothly. Inspired by RAGBRAI fever, she thought this would be a great community event to promote cycling in the community. Fifty people showed up and learned about the joys of cycling, how to properly fit a helmet, how to cross an intersection, and the hand signals to use while operating a bike. Albert used our Iowa Bike Rodeo Toolkit to help plan and execute her first bike rodeo. Using the toolkit Albert, with the help of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition, mapped out a multi station rodeo to teach traffic safety to young cyclists.
“We want to be able to keep not only members of our church, but members of our community safe. And the kids can learn some hand signals, and they can learn the proper way to come to full stops near traffic, know where to ride, and how to handle their bikes correctly,” said Albert
She didn’t have to go it alone, 19 volunteers stepped up and helped promote safe cycling in their community. Members of Grace UMC congregation and community members helped man the stations. Two officers from the Sioux City Police Department were there helping kids learn how to navigate the road and passing out tickets for safety (redeemable for ice cream!). Siouxland Cyclists members were on site to share their venerable knowledge of cycling. And Siouxland Bike for Kids donated two bicycles to give away for the young participants.
Albrecht Cycle Shop provided their expertise to make sure everyone’s bikes were ready to roll and safe to use.
Helmets were given to youth that needed a new, or proper fitting helmet. Katherine Bak of Siouxland Bikes for Kids was on running the helmet check station and made sure every cyclist had a properly fitted helmet. Thank you to our partners at the Iowa Association for Justice for sponsoring helmets for this event
Thank you to Sioux City Police Department, members of Grace UMC, Siouxland Cyclists group, Siouxland bikes for kids. And special thanks to our Safe Routes Champion Tamera Albert for coordinating and hosting one dynamite rodeo.
Want to host your own bike rodeo? Check out our Iowa Bike Rodeo Toolkit or contact our Safe Routes to School Manager at matt@iowabike.org