With the end of PEAC's summer program and the coolness of weather approaching, that can only mean one thing. Fall is coming! The coming of Fall brings cheering on of your favorite college football teams, visits to the cider mill and of course PEAC's Celebration of Cycling.
The Celebration of Cycling is entering its 20th year as being the premier fundraiser for Programs to Educate All Cyclists (PEAC) as we empower the lives of individuals through cycling in order to enrich lives by increasing community access, fostering social improvement and promoting healthy lifestyles.
With the money raised by the Celebration of Cycling, students all over southeastern Michigan have the opportunity to ride. This event helps keep the cost to only $35 per student for 7 weeks of individualized summer program instruction. This year, PEAC has had the opportunity to work with more than 150 students to help them reach their cycling goals and PEAC has worked with more than 700 students this summer through auxiliary programs in local communities.
This summer has been filled with successes! Here are just a few to help you envision a day in the life of our summer program.
Eden E, age 8, is diagnosed with cerebral palsy and uses an electric wheelchair as her main mode of transportation. On the day of her initial evaluation, her mom brought her adaptive trike to site and said that Eden would be using this as her bike and she would like her to learn some community safety skills to help her navigate the sidewalks of their neighborhood. Eden's adaptive trike has a back support with a waist belt to help keep her upright as well as foot plates and straps to keep her feet on the pedals. After seeing that Eden was pretty skilled at the nuances of her own tricycle by being able to steer around our parking lot track, we decided that Eden would be able to ride on the back of a tandem. Eden was surprised and excited that she would be able to ride another bike besides the one that she brought from home and her mom was a little frightened at the idea of Eden on a bicycle without as much support as her adaptive trike provided; however, both Eden and her mom allowed us to expand Eden's bike repertoire. After a few laps around the parking lot, it was clear that Eden had found a new love in the tandem bicycle and instead of just learning about community skills from her tricycle, Eden was able to experience the surrounding community on the back of a tandem bike.
Brian G., age 9, came to us after working with Lose the Training Wheels last summer. Unfortunately, Brian just couldn't figure out two-wheel skills after working with them. So, Brian and his dad decided to take the summer off from bicycling and to try again. This summer, they came to PEAC to try their hand at the two-wheel again. At Brian's evaluation, he wouldn't even look at the two-wheeled bicycle; instead he found a little blue tricycle and pedaled it around the parking lot for the whole 20 minutes. Slowly, but surely, we weened Brian off of the tricycle and onto the tandem and a two-wheeled bicycle without pedals. Eventually, Brian came to realize the freedom and the speed that he could experience while riding a two-wheeled bike and he became more and more determined to pedal the two-wheeled bicycle on his own. With only two days remaining in summer program for Brian, upon arrival, he bolted out of the car, picked up the blue two-wheeled bike that he had been walking, scooting and gliding all summer; pushed off and started pedaling. The staff didn't even realize the huge accomplishment until I heard screams of "Brian, YOU ARE DOING IT! You are riding a two-wheeled bike!" Brian took a lap around the parking lot and then coasted to a stop by his dad, squealing in delight. He pushed off again, put his feet on the pedals, yelling around the parking lot "I CAN DO IT! I CAN RIDE A BIKE. A TWO-WHEELED BIKE."
These and many more students have reached success through our program this summer. We hope that you will come out and ride with us on September 8th to Celebrate our students and to continue to reach out to cyclists with disabilities. To register for the event, please go to this website
http://bikeprogram.org/celebration-of-cycling-registration/. If you are unable to attend this event, please consider sponsoring a cyclist with a disability, for only $20 you are giving that participant a chance to ride.
