NORTH BATTLEFORD — Kids had a chance to learn their A, B, Cs of bicycle safety at the fourth annual Bike Rodeo event this week.
The event, scheduled to run May 12 to 16, was organized by the Battlefords Victim Services in conjunction with the Battlefords RCMP.
Battlefords RCMP Corporal Steve Bell, with the Crime Prevention Victim Services Unit, was busy greeting students from Notre Dame School on May 15 at the Access Communications Centre, where a course was set up to give students tips on bike safety.
Students in Grade 3 came from schools in North Battleford, Battleford and neighbouring First Nations to attend the sessions during the week.
"All this week we've been running a Bike Rodeo for the community and the surrounding First Nations," Bell said. "We anticipate about 400 students will come through."
Sessions were held in Battleford and North Battleford during the week.
"It's just educating kids on some bike safety and putting them through a little bit of a course we have," Bell said. "The kids have some fun riding through the course and interacting with the officers. They get to see them in a different light too. Then, at the end of the day, they get some treats from us. We've got wonderful donations from the community; they really stepped up. There have been lots of grants to be able to put on [the Bike Rodeo]."
Kids will also receive some bike safety equipment and reading material about riding safely on their bicycles in the community.
Next week, each class will receive a free bike and some helmets to raffle off in their class. That's a total of 25 new bikes that will be given away.
"The schools are pretty excited they'll be getting one [bike] per Grade 3 class," Bell said. "We get every Grade 3 student on the right path to riding their bike safely, following all the rules and making sure their bike is in top working order."
Bell said spring is a good time to help kids learn the basics of riding their bikes.
"Bikes are coming out of the garage," Bell said. "We see a few [bikes] that come that we usually fix up a bit. We start with the proper helmet fitting.
"We show them what they should be looking for with the helmet... Then, we go over to their bike - what they should be looking for. That's where we'll catch some stuff that maybe needs to be tightened up or fixed on their bikes, and we'll do that for them here," he added.
