Bike rodeo held at Pinehurst Elementary School: 3/8

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Bike rodeo held at Pinehurst Elementary School

by Ashley Barker
Public Relations

Students at Pinehurst Elementary School were taught how to safely ride a bicycle during a bike rodeo March 1.

Students spent the morning learning how to safely ride a bicycle during the Safe Kids Trident Area bike rodeo. Employees from the MUSC Children's Hospital, Safe Kids Trident Area, Safe Routes to School, North Charleston Fire Department and the North Charleston Police Department shared their expertise and fitted each student with a new bike helmet.

Employees from the MUSC Children's Hospital, Safe Kids Trident Area coalition, Safe Routes to School program, the North Charleston Fire Department and the North Charleston Police Department spent the morning sharing their expertise with the fourth and fifth grade students.

The Safe Kids Trident Area's traveling bike rodeo trailer was brought to the event. It contains a variety of bikes and helmets for the students and holds equipment for the "bike safety town," a course of cones, walls and signs that direct children where to ride.

Members of the MUSC Meducare medical transport service allowed fourth and fifth grade students at Pinehurst Elementary School to tour an ambulance during the Safe Kids Trident Area bike rodeo, March 1.

Each child was fitted with a new bicycle helmet and taught how to wear the helmet effectively. The students also learned to obey road signs as they practiced riding through the "town."

A member of the North Charleston Police Department's bike team watched as students rode bikes through a course set up in the school's parking lot. Rodeo

Alicia Rhoades, the school's nurse, said the bike rodeo was long overdue for many of the students.
"Some of them didn't even know what a cross walk was," she said. "We needed help. We needed lots of help showing them how to be safe."

Once the students completed the bike riding portion of the rodeo, they toured the inside of an MUSC Meducare ambulance.

"We have a special-needs student who the other students sometime see being transported in a similar type of ambulance," Rhoades said. "Letting them look around and see what an ambulance looks like inside was important to the students."

For more information about Safe Kids Trident Area, visit http://www.musckids.com/safekids/.

About Safe Kids Trident Area Coalition
Founded in 1996, and led by the MUSC Children's Hospital, Safe Kids Trident Area serves Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties and acts as a catalyst for individuals, agencies and organizations to come together to reduce and prevent accidental childhood injuries to children 14 and under. Safe Kids Trident Area is a coalition of individuals who work to unite resources and efforts to combat accidental injuries through community action, public awareness, education and public policy initiatives.

Friday, March 8, 2013

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