With grant support from VTrans and in partnership with Fletcher Allen Health Care, Local Motion launched a program this year called BEST -- Bike Education and Skills Training -- to give at least 400 kids essential bike handling skills and safety awareness.  Our goal was to enhance children's independent mobility, increase their daily physical activity, and improve their health by making them more confident and competent cyclists.  By the end of the summer, we had worked with over 500 kids, spending an average of almost four hours with each of them!

Kids loved the trainings.  Many started hesitant, unsure of themselves and their abilities.  By the end, almost every child was riding confidently, with big smiles and much-improved on-bike skills. As a result of our work, kids who formerly would have defaulted to pestering their mom for a ride or sitting in front of the TV instead will get out their bikes, strap on their helmets, and ride down the street with their friends.

This program does not come cheap. An eight-hour training series for two dozen kids (four two-hour sessions over the course of a week) costs about $2500 to put on.  Next year, our goal is to expand the program to include not only summer sessions, but also in-school programs that integrate safe biking and walking skills into the curriculum.  We need to raise a total of $66,750 to launch an expanded program in 2011 that will train 3500 children across Chittenden County. If you'd like to help make this happen or if you have ideas for how we can reach this goal, please contact Jason Van Driesche at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .