Back at the end of April R.I.F. coordinated with Nate Lewallen, the shop teacher (and a whole lot more) at the McKinley Middle School on a program which brought together two of Mayor Menino's Boston Bikes initiatives — Roll It Forward and Youth Cycling Program. While Roll It Forward is dedicated to providing bikes to low income Boston residents, the Youth Cycling Program is tasked with providing bicycle safety education to Boston youth through schools, community centers, camps, and other outlets.
The event at Mckinley involved a serious bicycle maintenance component. The kids learned how to do everything from fixing flats to truing wheels. Of course, as usual, a huge element of the YCP training was focused on helmet safety. The Roll It Forward aspect of the program was that, at the end of the instruction period, all the kids got to keep the bikes they had learned how to maintain.
More photos after the break...
