Donation puts Norwood students in motion
Physical education teacher Zan Braden leads Norwood Elementary School students as they try out new bicycles donated by Yamaha. (photo:Ben Pounds )
Officials from Yamaha, Windrock Park and the school system gathered in the school’s gym to unveil the bicycles on Wednesday, March 25.
Yamaha Motor Corporation partnered with Windrock Park to bring its program “All Kids Bike” to the school.
Norwood Principal Lindsasy Foust said the bikes and accessories cost more than $9,000, but Yamaha had funded the program fully.
She said she was grateful for the partnership.
“This brings something educational, fun, [and] exciting, and will provide students with a lifelong skill that will carry them and something they can use for the rest of their life,” she said.
For now, the bikes lack pedals or training wheels.
Students at the event walked while seated on them, cirlcling around the gym. Physical education teacher Zan Braden led them.
He told The Courier News the pedal-free bikes help the students practice balance so that they know what they’re doing when they get the pedals.
“Once everybody gets kind of comfortable with being able to balance, we add the pedals in,” he said.
He said he also hopes the experience helps the students to gain confidence.
“Some of them might see the bikes and they might be intimidated at first, but as we practice it and learn it, just like any other skill, the more you do it, the better you get,” Braden said.
“That’s my favorite thing about PE classes,” he said. “When they struggle through a skill and then they learn it. And seeing the smiles on their faces.”
Foust said the “All Kids Bike” curriculum was for eight weeks.
The bikes stay at the school and multiple classes of kindergarten and first-grade students will use them.
Dan Ravito, Destination Yamaha manager, said the bikes have a lifespan of around 10 years.
He estimated that the school system could instruct 300 children using them during that time.
Even though the cycling activities were in the gym, Foust hoped the program would encourage enthusiasm for the Oliver Springs area’s trails.
“We have so many beautiful areas around us where students can go explore the outdoors and ride their bikes,” Foust said.
Ravito said the program is in operation nationwide, and so far 35 schools have received bikes from it.
“It’s something we want to make available to as many schools as possible,” he said.
He said Windrock Park is a partner for the Destination Yamaha division of Yamaha, which rents out vehicles for offroading trips.
Windrock Park informed Yamaha about the school as a site for the program.
Samantha Collins, marketing manager for Windrock, said her company aimed to be a good community partner for Norwood Elementary.
