Castlemaine Steiner School and Kindergarten (CSSK) joined the national Ride2School Day that took place on Friday March 24.
As well as being a fantastic event for the students, the day raised funds for the international organisation, World Bicycle Relief.
The whole school was involved in the Ride2School event. Starting early Friday morning, 24 students and a handful of parents met to ride 2.5km to school. Later, as a whole school event, students took on the challenge of decorating their bikes for the Bike Parade, peddling the orange juice bike, testing their skills on the obstacle course and riding the weird and wonderful bikes brought along by our bike expert guests ‘Paddy Toastie’ and ‘Rainbow Rider’.
Thirty two students from Grade 2 to 8 and many keen parents then rode the 9 km from school to the Castlemaine Botanical Gardens to finish this activity filled day.
CSSK Outdoor Education teacher and CycleSafe Mt Alexander spokeswoman Penny Gilbert organised the day, being a fantastic supporter of this nation-wide event.
“Cycling to school, or anywhere, is such a great activity for the whole family with many of our younger students and their parents joining us for the ride to school and after school to the Botanical Gardens.” Penny said.
“Riding our bikes has so many benefits, be it for our health and wellbeing, reducing our reliance on cars and also the fantastic social aspect when we ride with others. We were happily surprised at just how many of our students signed up for the longer ride into Castlemaine.”
The event also provided an excellent opportunity to raise awareness for World Bicycle Relief, an international organisation providing great bikes to people around the world. They are “empowering individuals to access education, healthcare and economic opportunities through life-changing bicycles” as stated on their website.
Penny gave students examples of how bikes had changed lives across the globe with the support from World Bicycle Relief.
“Now that they have a bike, they can sell their farm produce to more people in the bigger towns a bike ride away” she explained at a school assembly.
For CSSK, the national Ride2School day has turned into an international fundraising day, benefiting those locally and abroad. Students and parents are already wanting to organise another ride soon and are looking forward to the event next year.