In the May 25 edition of Yorkton This Week the following bike rodeo story was headlined on Page A3, but the story which ran was not correct. Here is the story, and YTW apologizes for the inconvenience.
In four short years, the Yorkton Bicycle Rodeo has become a perennial favourite event for Grade 3 students.
The program, a joint initiative the local RCMP detachment, Yorkton Fire Protective Services, Canadian Tire, the Painted Hand Casino, the Painted Hand Community Development Corporation, SGI and the Yorkton Active Transportation Collaborative, seeks to drill bike safety into kids at a time when they are physically capable of mastering necessary skills, but also still extremely impressionable.
At the kick-off at St. Paul’s School May 18 (the official kick-off rotates between local elementary schools) speaker after speaker including Mayor Bob Maloney, Const. Karen Vicente and Deputy Fire Chief Greg Litvanyi reinforced the safety mantra particularly with respect to always wearing a helmet.
Speakers even encouraged students to advocate safety to their parents, friends and family members.
“We’re proud to again be part of this program, and to assist our local RCMP members in giving our young people a good grounding in basic bicycle safety,” Maloney said. “This is something they will remember throughout their lives.”
Following the viewing of a video by Bill Nye the Science Guy that graphically illustrates the benefits of bicycle safety, each student was given a helmet and sent off to the rodeo.
Firefighters checked helmets for proper fitting and bicycles for tire pressure general set up before RCMP officers put the kids through the paces of a safety course laid out in the St. Paul’s outdoor rink area.
The course challenges riders in areas such as balance, signaling and shoulder checking.
All local schools, totaling 270 Grade 3 students, participated in the 2016 event as part of Bicycle Safety Week.
.JPG;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)
