A record number of 48 students participate in BSAFE Learn to Ride clinic

A record number of 48 youngsters turned up to try their hand at learning to ride when BSAFE held a Learn to Ride clinic on Saturday May 28^th at the Admin Complex. 

We registered 23 children who were under 6 which made for a very entertaining and fun-filled day.  The logistics of trying to get all these younger children riding went fairly smoothly with the lessons spread throughout the day.  A number of parents brought their own child’s bike, but there were still a few points where I had to ask a rider who only just learned to surrender their bike to teach another.  Luckily BSAFE received 2 additional 16” bicycles, which were donated by parents whose children had outgrown them.  BSAFE now has 4 of these bikes and is looking for another 4 to facilitate this type of clinic. 

The following 3 photos show how it all works for a youngster...sometimes in less than 15 minutes

First you practice pedalling... 

Besides the bikes the key is also to have some fit volunteers to get the children through the first phase of learning.  Gareth Thomas, John Shirley, Richard Morgan and Lloyd Duberry helped all the riders get to the point where they could then practice with their parents or ride on their own.  In general the parents were very keen to help and take over once they saw how easy and well the method works.  The idea is to get the child riding using his or her own balance and the helper is there to keep them upright, by supporting the body rather than the bike.

The most notable achievement came from 2year-10month old Keiner Montilla who was helped onto a bike that was a bit big for him and then he just rode away! No teaching involved there, pure instinct.  Keiner’s parents’ challenge will be to make him understand why he has to stop.

Then you get some help balancing... 

A few of the children had other things to do on that day and even though they had been riding for hours, there were tears at having to leave.  The hardest part of my job is taking back a bike, you can see in the child that they feel they will forget what they have just learned and they are having so much fun, how could I do that to them?

Then you break free for your first solo ride!

We also had quite a few former students show up who got a chance to ride around the Admin Complex with BVICF junior riders Shaquil Samuel and Barney Knocholds.

By the end of the day close to 60 children took part in either the Learn to Ride clinic or had some fun riding.   Thankfully I had some fantastic volunteers and I could not have had such a successful day without the administrative help and helmet checks done by Stephanie Russ-Penn, Eric Braithwaite, Rotaractors Tashima Barzey, Magdalene Barzey and 3 or  4  others whose names I did not get!

This school year has been extremely difficult because of funding shortfalls brought on by the government’s budget challenges.  BSAFE only continues to exist because of the generous support of private sector sponsors: Caribbean Alliance and its agents Caribbean Insurers, the Rotary Club of Tortola, Burke’s Garage, Ogier and PricewaterhouseCoopers.  Their contributions have been met, but BSAFE is short 50% of its budget to operate so is continually appealing to the private sector to support the program where the government can not at the moment.

If you or your company would like to find out how to support the BSAFE program or arrange a cycling safety weekend visit www.bsafe.vg or contact Chris Ghiorse at 542-1981 or chris@bsafe.vg