By Shannon Lukens.
The 6th grade Street Smarts program started Tuesday at Steamboat Springs Middle School. It continues for two more days. It’s about bike safety for the kids. Here’s Steamboat Springs Middle School Athletic Director Joe Laliberte.
Routt County Riders helped pull the three-day bike safety program together. Laraine Martin says middle schoolers are a great age to target because this is the summer 6th graders get more freedom to ride their bikes around town on their own, with their friends.
Kids brought their own bikes but Switchback Sports was on hand to lend bikes to the kids as well. Laliberte says they will work with Routt County Riders and their Bike Match program to help get all 6th graders a bike. They are also receiving helmet donations from Colorado Children’s Hospital for any 6th graders who need one.
Local law enforcement helped as did Routt County Public Health, who showed kids how to wear a helmet properly. They learned trail etiquette, signaling, and other rules of the road. Some 6th graders do not know how to ride a bike so folks from SBTGRVL (Steamboat Gravel) are on hand to help with that.
Those groups involved in the Street Smarts program, which is in its first year, are Routt County Riders, Routt County Public Health, SBTGRVL, Switchback Sports, CDPHE, Bicycle Colorado, Steamboat Police, Community Service Officers, Routt County Sheriff’s Officers, Steamboat Springs Middle School and the Steamboat Springs School District.