2020 Youth BEST Wrap-Up
Bike Utah’s Youth Bicycle Education and Safety Training (BEST) Program teaches more than 3,000 Utah kids every year how to safely and confidently experience their communities by bicycle. The program is a 4-hour, in-class, and on-bike curriculum taught over four consecutive days at schools around Utah, targeting students in the 4th to 7th grades. Bike Utah provides trained instructors, bicycles, helmets, and all other equipment for the duration of the program at no cost.
In the 2019-2020 school year, our staff visited 30 schools in 11 Utah counties, bringing the grand total of Utah Schools visited since 2016 to 154 and the total number of students taught to 12,000. 100% of our students have mastered our bicycle skills to date; learning hand signals, traffic signs, how to ride their bike on the road safely, and participating in our community rides.
A student at Mountain Green Elementary participating in our Youth BEST Program.
Students from Whittier Elementary participating in the community group ride.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic our staff halted in-person teaching in March of 2020. From March 2020 to August of 2020 staff worked remotely and created videos for students to continue practicing bike skills. Our Youth BEST program also translated our curriculum into a Spanish accessible version with more language translations pending to promote an inclusive learning experience. Check out the thank you letters we received from our awesome students here.
When it was safe to do so our staff returned to teaching in August 2020, teaching at two locations in greater Salt Lake County. Bike Utah provided the same comprehensive Youth BEST programming to residents in Salt Lake County with the Covid-19 accommodations necessary to keep students and staff safe. We also held three Bike Fix Days, offering free bicycle repair for the community.
Participants of our Bike Fix day.
Sunnyvale Participants on a community group ride.
With the support of our sponsors, Safe Routes Utah, Department of Public Safety, Utah State Legislature, Union Pacific Foundation, Sorenson Legacy Foundation, Trek Bicycles and Kali helmets, we were able to continue our programming into the fall.
Help us continue to expand our Youth BEST programming! When you donate to Bike Utah, you are investing in teaching Utah students and creating the next generation of lifelong bicycle riders!
