The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Bike club brings students joy, confidence
Group that began with handful of members grows in popularity
LEDYARD — It started small, with just a handful of students joining Ledyard Middle School’s bike club seven years ago.
Since then, the cycling club, based in the Gales Ferry part of town, has grown to more then 45 members, with a strong backing from the community. The teacher who launched it hopes other schools follow suit.
“It’s sort of like this icon of our school,” said Kristen Gallagher, a special education instructor. “It’s become this huge program. It’s fun. The focus, instead of racing, is on community and team building, and skill building, and pushing yourself to try new things.”
Gallagher started the bike club seven years ago, after the Connecticut Cycling Advancement Program came to her school to discuss their program, which encourages young people to take up the sport.
While Gallagher said she never thought of herself as a coach, she decided to try it out, and see if she could get the club off the ground.
“It just kind of started,” she said. “They gave us three bikes to start with. Kids had their own bikes. We would just bike around to start with, and the kids would say, ‘When are we going to have practice again?”’
Gallagher went to a local bike shop to learn more about mountain biking so she could teach the students, and the owner ended up giving her a new bike to use until she could buy her own. This was just the first instance of what became a trend of support from local partners, she said.
“They were so excited to see that there were going to be kids riding, and that’s what we were providing at school for kids,” she said, adding that the club also later partnered with the New England Mountain Bike Association.
Gallagher said some members have gone on to do Eagle Scout projects with NEMBA and local land trusts, further involving the community. Volunteers have also come to supervise the students, while others have done maintenance on the bikes.
She also said the middle school administration and Board of Education have been incredibly supportive.
By the fourth year, Gallagher said, 30 students had joined in. She said some bikes were donated from CCAP, while other students brought their own.
“I felt like we were really getting somewhere with this,” she said.
Applying for funding
For that reason, Gallagher applied for a grant from Outride, which researches the impact of cycling on students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder at Stanford University. While most people who apply for the grant are gym teachers, Gallagher said she was surprised when her club was awarded the funds.
“I asked for 45 bikes,” she said, noting the school was going to add sixthgrade students the following year so she expected it to grow.
Outride flew Gallagher out to California to get training in curriculum involving bike use and safety. She said she also got to go to a research symposium at Stanford on the effects of cycling on ADHD.
“That really spring-boarded us,” she said. “Now we had a curriculum I could use. We have lots of mountain bikes. They gave us tubes, extra rims. They gave us bike pumps. They sent a box of clothes for the kids. That really pushed us to the larger numbers.”
Crafting the club
The year after the school got the grant, Gallagher said, 60 kids joined the club. She then had to shift how often the they could ride — splitting the club into three different, ability-based groups riding once a week.
“My beginner kids are getting a lot of attention and skill, and my intermediate and advance riders all are at levels with kids at their level,” she said, “so that we can have really enjoyable riding experiences and nice connections with the kids as well.”
Gallagher also recently secured a $10,000 grant from Fund for Teachers, a nonprofit group which gives grants to innovative teachers. She was recently interviewed on an episode of its podcast.
Gallagher said approximately 25 percent of the students in the club are also in the special education program or on a 504 plan (which helps those with learning disabilities).
Reaping the benefits
Gallagher said members have helped children further develop their social skills and confidence.
“You can accomplish (it) in a session with mountain biking in 10 minutes. You can be successful,” she said. “While in the classroom, a lot of kids struggle. You can struggle all day at school, but come out after and ride your bike. In 10 minutes, you can do something you didn’t think you could do before.”
Gallagher has seen students grow in various ways, pointing to two kids she said were once painfully shy.
“They just wouldn’t talk. They joined the bike team and they’d come out of their shell. It’s little steps, right? In the classroom, that translates into a little more participation; coming up to talk to me at my desk to share something,” the coach said.
Gallagher loves to help students with ADHD channel their gift, she said, adding that she will frequently give them leadership positions out on the trail. Little things, such as being group leaders or getting sent to grab something, she said, can help students feel important, empowered and valued.
“It does translate into the classroom, because those kids know they are leaders,” she said.
‘It really changes lives’
Gallagher said former students come back to help out, and described how a 10th-grader helped a seventh-grader learn to ride over a small log.
“My former student was so happy and proud for him,” she said. “It’s such an awesome feeling to see that role passed on to another kid who can feel how much joy it brings you when you see someone else successful.”
Gallagher’s dream for the club is for it to become very popular.
“There’s nothing else in southeastern Connecticut,” she said. “So I’m really hoping to grow school programs — that we’re contagious, and somebody else wants to take on a school program, so that we can ride with other kids.”
“The kids love it,” she said, “when you see their faces and they’re riding and they’re smiling and yelling. They’re joyful to be out there and have something they love to do.
“If there was a teacher out there who was like, ‘I might do this. I might not,’ I would just love for them to go for it, and do it, because it really changes lives,” Gallagher said.