El Grupo did two awesome outreach events this past week in the Westside Coalition neighborhoods. Each had a distinct purpose and yet both brought smiles to numerous people's faces.
The first was the Bike-2-the Market day at the Santa Cruz Farmers' Market off Speedway and Riverview, put on by the Community Food Bank each Thursday from 3pm-6pm. El Grupo participants Logan and Kramer tuned up and made shine a dozen bicycles of shoppers at the market. We had lots of bike maps, comic books for kids, and basic bike safety info that others found super useful. This was a first-time event, but with portable tools and bike stand borrowed from BICAS, we hope to make this a more common occurence. If you know of any event that would benefit from having us out there, let us know!
The second outreach event was at the El Rio Community Center Annual Health Fair on Saturday, March 14th. Thanks to Pima County DOT Bicycle & Pedestrian Program, we were able to have all the bicycles and obstacle course props needed to have well over 50 kids hone their bicycle skills that morning. El Grupo participants Julia, Conner, Kramer and assistant coach Alex all helped Daniela & Ignacio fit about 100 kids of all ages with helmets that they could keep, and coach them through the obstacle course. So
me kids even learned how to ride for the first time with help from an older, patient El Grupo rider. Also, we had tons of Spanish speakers that we were able to get valuable bike safety info all in Spanish. It was a total blast! We look forward to doing more bike safety outreach in the near future. Everyone leaves a winner--El Grupo participants gain confidence and pride from teaching younger riders, and the younger riders gain skills and get to see that riding bikes is cool! Thanks to funding from the Westside Coalition Weed & Seed Program and the Department of Justice for making this all possible
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