As a small rural school district with a free and reduced lunch population hovering around 44%, many of the students in the Wright City R-II School District have not learned how to ride a bicycle because they don’t have access at home.

By implementing the All Kids Bike program, access will no longer be an issue. A $7,500 Operation Round Up grant awarded by the Cuivre River Electric Community Trust Board provided the final funding for the school district to participate in the program, which overall costs upward to $10,000.

The program will serve all of the district’s kindergarten and first-grade students attending Wright City East Elementary in Foristell and West Elementary in Wright City. School officials estimate more than 300 students will benefit in the growing district.
 

“Learning to ride a bike will help students develop physically and mentally,” said Jen Hamilton, physical education teacher. “It gives kids greater confidence, reduces stress and anxiety, fights against depression and provides better focus and engagement in the classroom. Being active is the best medicine to counteract obesity and other diseases associated with being overweight.”
 

The All Kids Bike program provides the school with 25 student strider bikes, 25 pedal conversion kits, helmets, two rolling storage racks, an instructor bike, teacher lesson plans, access to a resource portal and ongoing live support. Students will spend the first five weeks learning how to balance on a strider bike. In the final three weeks, the bikes are converted to having pedals.

Hamilton hopes the program is ready to be launched by the end of the current school year. 

In the first year, a goal has been set to have 70% of the kindergarten and first-grade students move from the strider bikes and be able to pedal independently on their bike. In year two, they have upped the goal to 75% for kindergartners and 90% for first graders.
 

“Learning to ride a bike is a key developmental milestone for children,” Hamilton said. 
 

The All Kids Bike program is already in 1,400 schools in every state.
 

“Our hope is that this program is so successful that we can become a mentor school for other districts in the adjoining counties to begin their own bike programs,” Hamilton said.