“Everytime I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the human race.” H.G. Wells is on to something with this quotation: be active, get outdoors, and let your legs take you where your car sometimes can’t.

When fifth grade parent Monika Stokes proposed a workshop teaching kids about safety and care for bicycles, it evoked memories of my 10 year-old self imagining that my bike was really a horse and it could take me anywhere: my friends’ houses, the woods in my backyard that I called “The Ranch,” and up and down the highway I created with chalk in my driveway. More than anything, my bike gave me my first taste of freedom. The workshop would provide so much more than I, or any of my childhood friends, knew about bikes. The fifth grade would become mechanics.

Over the course of an afternoon in the makerspace, Monika, local riders, and a staff member from Danny’s Cycles in Stamford taught fifth graders how to clean and grease bike chains, how to repair a flat tire, about the different types of pedals used, the proper way to fit a helmet and the safety measures needed out on the roads and trails. There was even a station with an assortment of bike parts that the students used to create anything they could imagine. The highlight of this workshop for me was the tire repair competition at the end. Any student who wanted to participate could use what they learned to repair a tire as fast as they could.

I knew that the kids would enjoy this workshop because of the physical nature of it, but I was blown away by which stations they enjoyed best. Students who I never would have expected to get into tire repair were down and dirty trying to master this task. Others really gravitated to using the greasy bike parts for art. Even if they didn’t ride, there was a personal connection to be made in this workshop. I am confident that the skills learned will serve them well at some point in their future: whether they are out enjoying a trail in the woods, playing on bikes with friends or even as an adult with their own kids.

Fifth grade parents, take your child out on a ride or ask them to show you how to fix a bike tube! Don’t worry about getting a flat; they know what to do.