Ride to Thrive Camp at Crouch Resource Centre

By Paula Coutinho, Ride to Thrive instructor

I had the pleasure of helping to lead three bicycle safety workshops as part of the Crouch Resource Centre’s week-long summer camps. Our first class on road safety rules was off to a lively start with the four campers who attended. Three were already keen and confident cyclists and the fourth, although somewhat hesitant at first, was confidently riding around by the end of the day. All four were full of questions and eager to share their various bike experiences. I was impressed by and thoroughly enjoyed the campers’ enthusiasm and friendliness. My fellow instructors expressed similar sentiments.

Paula working with kids last summer at one of our first camps.

In our second workshop, we had three returning participants and two new ones. We taught them how to fix a flat tire and then coached them through doing it themselves. Some did it like old pros, and some struggled with it, but all of them succeeded. It was very satisfying to help them learn such a simple but important bike repair. Perhaps some of them will never do it again, but doing it this once may have planted a seed of confidence and new possibility for things yet to come. On the flipside, one of our participants got to use this new skill the very next week. Upon arriving at our third and final workshop, he discovered that our bike pumps couldn’t solve the problem of his flat tire any better than his bike pump at home had done. But within a few minutes, he had found and patched the flat-causing hole, and was back in the saddle!

Our third workshop focused on a group ride through nearby neighbourhoods and the Thames River bike path. This is where "the rubber meets the road." All that we had taught the children about road safety rules and how to do a “signal sandwich” was being put to the test. As the main leader of the ride, I came up the rear and could see what all of the riders were doing. It was exciting and also a bit nerve-wracking to watch the children put into practice what we had taught them. Some of them had caught on very quickly and readily adapted to riding on the road. Others needed frequent coaching and were sometimes more caught up in conversation then paying attention to their riding skills and safe riding practices—something we older and more experienced riders are also sometimes guilty of when riding with friends! Overall, I was impressed by how far they had come in such a short time.

In my opinion, not all of the participants are yet ready to safely ride the streets by themselves. However, I believe we have increased their awareness and given them a good start in this direction. I hope that we have also helped them to see that bicycles are a viable and enjoyable means of transportation which they might consider for themselves.

The most frequently asked questions which I remember hearing are:

“Is it true that everyone is going to get a free set of bike lights?" (They did.)

“Can I ride Julie’s bike?” (Julie has one of those seriously fat-wheeled bikes.)

“Can I try Ben’s bike?” (Ben has an e-bike.)

We got some keeners indeed! I look forward to the possibility of seeing some of them out on the road in the months and years to come.