ernesto's blog

Literally, the month of May was jam-packed with youth bicycle and pedestrian rodeos that were conducted through the Safe Routes to School programs in Santa Clara, San José, and East Palo Alto. Altogether, with the help of fellow SVBC staff and volunteers, we conducted a total of 27 bicycle and pedestrian rodeos. These activities granted us the opportunity to teach important bicycle and pedestrian safety skills to over 600 students during the month of May.

Once again, SVBC is partnering with the City of Sunnyvale, Traffic Safe Communities Network and Stanford Hospital Trauma Services to put on the second annual Sunnyvale Family Fun Ride on May 19, 2012. This event aims to bring families out to ride their bikes together and see how fun it can be to pedal around their community, with the ultimate goal of promoting Safe Routes to Schools. The three to five mile ride will begin and end at Ponderosa Park as it circles around two local schools -- Braly and Ponderosa.

I must admit that after having the last two weeks off work, it was a bit difficult getting up to the sound of an alarm in the morning once again. During my two weeks off I did a lot of eating and nothing. Now that I am back to work, I must also go back to school.

At the end of Tuesday’s very successful Fourth Annual Dinner, someone told me, “I hope you don’t get post-event syndrome.” I told him that I never knew such a thing existed, but now I’m thinking there might be something to it.

First, I should start at the beginning. As you may know, my colleagues and I have been working very hard the last couple of months to plan, organize and put on the best SVBC Annual Dinner anyone has ever attended. We booked great speakers, found a great venue, and gathered amazing auction items.

On October 12, nearly two hundred students took part in a bike rodeo at Anne Darling Elementary School, where they learned how to ride their bikes safely by participating in four bicycling courses. Over a dozen volunteers helped teach students how to make right turns, left turns, exit out of a driveway, scan and look over their shoulder, and properly fit a helmet. All of this is part of the month-long Walk and Bike to School program in which hundreds of students at this school are participating.