Kids Ride Club 15th Anniversary ride.

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Chainlinks is an ongoing project, in which various organizations discuss the definition of community and its value in today's society.

"A community is not just a collection of people who share the same daily spaces, but it is one that involves the proactivity of people working together and facilitates participation."
Pasqualina Azzarello, Executive Director, Recycle a Bicycle

Like many Brooklynites, I am a transplant. I initially began cycling as a way to explore the borough I live in beyond the subway system and to resist clinging only to familiar places and things, as I habitually did. But a bike is more than two-wheeled, man-powered ship for the modern landlocked voyager. Because of cycling, I am now much more aware of my surroundings, my impulses in those surroundings and perhaps most importantly, I am more aware of my own body. That is why I so greatly admire the mission of Recycle a Bicycle's Kid's Ride Club, an organization conceived with that very notion of personal development in mind.

According to Pasqualina Azzarello, Executive Director for Recycle a Bicycle, Kids Ride Club began 15 years ago as a partnership between Dr. Edward Fishkin, Medical Director at Woodhull Hospital and avid cyclist, and RAB. The goal was to encourage kids from East Williamsburg to ride bikes in order to explore their own neighborhood and life beyond it. These young riders would consequently reap the benefits of exercising, breathing fresh air, sharpening their spacial awareness and participating in a community.

Today, Kids Ride Club is a community of young people from mostly underserved neighborhoods that is made possible by a collective of cycling advocates (Recycle a Bicycle) and is supported by an extended family of regional sponsors (including Dr. Fishkin, New York Cycle Club and local volunteers). "Kids Ride Club is successful not just because it is a good idea," defends Azzarello. "But because it relies on participation. It relies on participation from kids, from their parents, from their educators. And it relies on partnership."

Last Sunday, KRC celebrated the 15 years of success with an anniversary ride from Long Island City, Queens to Prospect Park, Brooklyn. The organization now boasts more than 100 members who take part in 18 rides per year, collectively pedaling more than 10,000 miles and burning more than 1.5 million calories, a feat unimaginable without their intrinsic support system. RAB provides the infrastructure and KRC challenges its participants, who in turn motivate one another to accomplish a common goal. On rides, New York Cycle Club members volunteer as marshals, encouraging this next generation of riders and ensuring their safety along the route. Essentially, KRC works so well because is a community, within a community, within a community.

That extensive community facilitates more than just the one-time achievement of completing a long-distance bike ride. Because cycling is a sustainable form of transportation, KRC teaches kids how to take care of the environment. They also learn to take better care of themselves through physical fitness. And their parents take notice of this personal development, too. Azzarello recalls the story of one parent who's children have been participating in KRC for two years. Convinced by his sons' stories about the group, he decided to mount a bicycle for the first time in years and join them on KRC's 15th anniversary ride. "We've seen so many parents become more active on bicycles because they were inspired by their children," says Azzarello. "What a beautiful model. It's like the minute a child becomes an educator, you know that something's going right."

For more information, visit www.recycleabicycle.org

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Post to my facebook too

Gina, merci bien de mettre ses pensées à l'écrit. J'adore cet esprit d'aventure!

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