As we end our 2023 season, we’re celebrating another fun and successful year of Walk!Bike!Fun!. Join us as we recap our highlights from 2023!
The Walk!Bike!Fun! program encompasses a wide range of activities and programs for educators, including hands-on curriculum training for educators, a more abbreviated training for informal educators and volunteers called the “Ambassador training” and basic maintenance, and educational materials. Technical assistance is also available for participants such as use of BikeMN’s bike fleets and adaptive library, and in person assistance during classes and group rides.
In 2023, Bike MN’s education team traveled all across Minnesota to provide programming to 13 different schools and 100 different educators, ranging from Richfield to Mankato. With 100 educators newly trained in how to provide high-quality bicycle and pedestrian education, approximately 1,000 students ages five to thirteen have received engaging, in-school programming and are now more confident and enthusiastic cyclists and walkers in their communities.
During last season (2023-24), we traveled all over the state to provide teacher and community member trainings! From as far south as Adrian, MN and all the way up to the North Shore. We had a great time up in Grand Marais for our “Cook County Residency” where we facilitated a teacher training on our curriculum, an Ambassador training for community members, and a local basic maintenance class to provide Cook County with the skills needed to maintain their bike fleet.
“Working with BikeMN has strengthened and grown our community’s capacity to provide in-school bike education programs which help instill knowledge and a love of active transportation which they will hopefully carry with them over their lifetimes. Thank you BikeMN!”
Kristina Mattson – SHIP Coordinator/ SRTS Coordinator and mother of 3 school age children.
Not only did we have an exciting season of training, but our bike fleet trailers had their own adventures as well! In September, one of our trailers disappeared in the middle of the night. With the help of community members we were able to locate our trailer and bikes and get them back into service in just a few days!
2024 has already gotten off to a strong start for Walk!Bike!Fun! with our team continuing partnerships with different schools throughout Minnesota. Please contact us at angela@bikemn.org and cj@bikemn.org if you’d like to request training or programming for your school or educators. To see a list of upcoming trainings, check our events calendar here. We are looking forward to the rest of 2024!
