Our second annual Bike to School Week (BTSW) on May 4th-11, 2008 was an enormous success! “Tour de Glenmore” filling every fence and bike rack with bikes at Glenmore School. Ellison Elementary organized a promenade of students cycling from Ellison Elementary School to Ellison Fire Hall with volunteer Ellison Firefighters leading the path. Springvalley Middle School held their first annual Bike to School Week Strength and Skill Rally where over 550 students watched as competitors cycled the grass running track, tested each other's ability to ride slowly without falling off, and challenged others to a 100 metre drag race. We implemented a total of 8 bike rodeos throughout the district with over 1,800 students participating. Final figures show that 22 schools participated throughout the District.
A total of 14,082 riders (this includes BTW particpants) were on the road during the week with 9,576 riders being students. There were 1,384 BTWW riders who rode at least once along with 4,277 students. We attracted 284 new BTWW cyclists and 664 new BTSW students riding to school for their very first time! Congratulations! Let's make 2009 bigger and better.
This year we are working with BTWW-BC a provincial non-profit society where the Central Okanagan is seen as one of the leaders in being the first city in BC to initiate Bike to School Week. At the provincial level we are expanding Bike to Work Week across the province on May 11-17. All participating municipalities: Vancouver area, Victoria, Kamloops, Vernon, Prince George and others will be celebrating this week and promoting commuter cycling in their communities. 
Here in the Central Okanagan, Bike to School Week is expanding with the cooperation of HASTE BC (Hub Action on School Transportation Emissions) a non profit organization that has an interactive resource website with easy tools for students to do their on-line registration for BTSW and learn how their mode of travel affects the environment. Additional learning tools are planning safe routes to school, bike safety etc. Check it out and plan your safe route to school and see how you impact your total Co2 emmissions by your mode of travel. www.hastebc.org.
Get Active.Be Healthy. Protect the Region You Love!
