Text and Photos
By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews
WARSAW — Students from four Warsaw Community Schools’ elementary schools learned and practiced bicycle skills on Friday, May 3.
Representatives from the KCV Cycling Club’s program Tracey’s Trailer led a bike rodeo in Warsaw Community Church’s parking lot.
Third graders from Washington STEM Academy and Jefferson, Eisenhower and Claypool elementary schools got help in riding bikes and headed through several courses.
KCV Cycling Club Vice President Greg Demopoulos said the club has two bicycle rodeos a year for area third graders, with the other being in the fall for Lincoln, Leesburg, Harrison and Sacred Heart elementary school students.
The Tracey’s Trailer program is in honor of the late Tracey Yeager.
“(It’s) significantly funded by the Tracey’s Trails Fund, which was set up by the Yeager family,” said Demopoulos. “(Tracey) was an avid bicyclist … We’ve got the trailer, tools, all the equipment we need, over 30 bicycles of varying sizes.”
The Warsaw Noon Optimist Club provided water bottles and helmets for students, with Warsaw Community High School students also helping at the event Friday.
Demopoulos said the club sent certified cycling instructors to the four elementary schools represented at Friday’s event for six weeks ahead of it.
“They will meet with the kids for about 25, 30 minutes. They do a helmet fit … and then we get the helmets ordered,” he said. “And then they go back each week, teaching them the basics of bicycling safety and then they get to come out to the rodeo and practice it.”
“We’ve got five stations that teach them varying things: stopping, using their signals, turning properly,” said Demopoulos of Friday’s rodeo, adding there was also a station to help beginning or less “confident” cyclists.
He said the club has sometimes received grants to pay for helmets, with other sponsors like Trailhouse Village Bicycles sometimes chipping in.
Demopoulos thanked WCC for allowing the club to use the parking lot.
“With it being National Bike Month, we like to do this in May and getting everybody together and getting the kids excited,” he said. “We tell them about (our upcoming) Fat & Skinny (Tire Fest). We’ll have Tracey’s Trailer at Fat & Skinny, so if they want to come learn more, they can come down.”
“Then, we’ll encourage a lot of the kids that feel comfortable enough to sign up for the other (festival) activities and the bike race on Sunday (May 19, at the festival),” said Demopoulos.
He thanked the schools for allowing instructors to come into their buildings and bringing kids out Friday.
Demopoulos noted the club will inquire at the schools about which kids cannot afford bikes at home, then work with the Warsaw and Winona Lake police departments to acquire them for students at the end of the school year.
He added the students at the bike rodeo could be future KCV members.
“I certainly hope that there are more members of KCV and president and vice president out here,” said Demopoulos.
People may donate for Tracey’s Trailer by sending funds to the club at P.O. Box 325, Winona Lake, IN 46590, and noting they are for Tracey’s Trailer.
