Students at Penhold’s Jessie Duncan Elementary School were lined up out the gym door to take part in the inaugural Community Peace Officers Bike Rodeo on Friday.
Penhold community peace officer Dana Jones said each class from kindergarten to grade three received a talk on bicycle safety and a knowledge test before the students took part in the actual rodeo. Once the students proceeded to the gym, volunteers checked their helmets for proper fit and conducted a thorough inspection of every bicycle.
“They’re checking the kids’ bikes with a checklist and the kids are going to give that to their parents to hopefully upgrade their bikes to be suitable for the roadway,” Jones explained.
A total of six stations were set up inside the gym: a straight line balance test; a steering test; a poise, balance, and decision test; a figure 8 test; a signalling test; and a pedalling and braking test.
“Those six stations and the knowledge test come together to give them a grade accuracy and to teach them the skills and to take the knowledge they have learned in the classroom into the stations,” Jones explained.
Peace officers from Red Deer County, Innisfail and Penhold as well as one member of the Innisfail RCMP were on hand to guide the students through the different stations. Volunteers from the Red Deer Optimist Club, the Penhold Optimist Club, Safe Communities for Central Alberta, Alberta Health Services, and the Town of Penhold were also on hand.
Jones started planning the rodeo in January and said the skills the students learned would be extremely important as they head out onto area roads. Her hope is to begin planning next year’s rodeo in August.
“I have a bigger and brighter scope of what more I want to put into it in area and space, and the involvement of people in it,” she said.
A number of area businesses provided donations, which were used to purchase eight bicycles – one for the top boy and top girl in each of the four classes, Jones said. All 150 students will have them names entered in a draw for a number of other prizes. Winners will be announced at a school assembly on June 24.
