I’m not sure where the term “bike rodeo” came from, but that’s exactly what we did last night for our Pack meeting. Basically, a bike rodeo is a chance for kids to get their bikes checked out for safety, get helmets fitted, and ride their bikes around.
We had a local bike dealer come out and setup to checkout the bikes and make sure that helmets were properly fitted to heads, while another Dad brought along a compressor to take care of bike tires. This was our “gathering” activity, basically the pre-meeting stuff. It took about 20 minutes for everything to get completed.
I wanted to keep the meeting part of the evening a short as possible. We had about 20 kids whom had arrived expecting to ride, not be talked to all night and I didn’t want to disappoint. So after our opening flag ceremony, I went through a short list of announcements about upcoming events and then formally introduced the bike shop owner who came out to help. I also mentioned that they were all going to earn their Bicycling Belt Loops.
It turned out to be good practice for him since he’s been approached by 4 or 5 other Packs for the exact same thing. He spoke for about 5 minutes about safety: what side of the rode to ride on, what to do at intersections, how to properly wear a helmet. His only mistake was to ask if there were any questions because he started getting stories about different things that happened to the kids when they rode their bikes here or there. Fortunately, he figured it out quickly and got them heading for the doors.
Our riding time was in the bus loading area for the school. This turned out to be perfect because rather than a large parking area, it was a circular roadway with a center line through it so the kids had a natural path to follow. We simulated an intersection and made sure the kids stopped and waited. We even had a couple of live drills when some late workers at the school got in their cars to leave.
The kids had a great time with it and for the final few minutes we gave them some free ride time where they could just tool around as they liked through the parking lot. Frankly, the night couldn’t have gone much better. For anyone thinking about organizing this sort of event for their own Pack, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a slam-dunk for a great night for the kids.