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Bike rodeo revived but rescheduled
(by David Jimenez - July 02, 2008)
It was over before it began. A summer storm caught event organizers and parents unprepared. As the downpour increased in intensity, event organizers were forced to cancel their mid-June outdoor event staged to teach children bicycle safety skills.
Sponsored by Denville’s Public Health and Safety Committee, the Denville Police Department and Morris County’s Northern New Jersey Safe Kids Safe Communities program, the bicycle clinic, called a rodeo, had planned to focus on the fun of cycling, while increasing bicycle safety for young riders.
The rodeo will now be held on Wednesday, July 9, from 6 to 8 p.m., at Denville’s Gardner Field, near the basketball courts. Admission is free and the event is open to children and their parents who care to learn about bike safety.
“Participants are asked to come prepared with bicycles and helmets to negotiate a test track and several safety stations set up to help riders understand the correct way to bike,” said KJ Feury, injury prevention coordinator at Morristown Memorial Hospital.
Umbrellas won’t be needed, if it should rain again, the rodeo will be moved to Riverview Elementary School gymnasium, organizers said.
Bicyclists will be taught key riding techniques from safety experts who will manage one of seven bike stations.
Participants will be guided from a starting point where helmets and bike seats are checked for fitness and size. The riders will then proceed to other posts dealing with bicycle maintenance, bike operation and the learning of riding rules and safety procedures cyclists must abide by when operating their two-wheeler on streets and pavements.
The bicycle rodeo, which has become an annual event in Denville, was in jeopardy this year due to projected monetary cuts in the town’s finances that threatened the cancellation or curtailment of several community programs. When Michelle McGlynn, a volunteer with township’s Public Health and Safety Committee, learned that the bicycle rodeo would be canceled, she started a campaign to save the program.
“I felt it was such a loss to our children and really wanted to have the program go on,” she said
With the help from a coalition of partners, McGlynn cobbled together a network of volunteers consisting of family, friends and town officials willing to promote an injury-free summer.
From 2004 to 2006, approximately 51 Morris County children, aged 1 to 14, were hospitalized for bicycle-related injuries according to statistics from the Northern New Jersey Safe Kids Safe Communities program.
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