Page 10 - Demo

Sunday, September 28, 2025 | Special Advertising Section 10 Connecting nature, body and experience, students will soon have the opportunity to join a new after-school bike program that teaches hands-on bike building, maintenance and safe riding.The program, a partnership between Sustainable NCW and the Community for the Advancement of Family Education, is funded by a $269,000 grant from the state Department of Transportation administered through the Cascade Bicycle Club.A first for the region, it will serve middle and high school students in several districts, pairing bike safety and maintenance lessons with group rides.During the spring, Freyja Bourke, outreach and education coordinator for Sustainable NCW, visited multiple middle schools in Wenatchee. Over two days, Bourke taught students bike maintenance and shared details about the program starting this fall.%u201cWe were teaching in the schools, and I loved that experience,%u201d Bourke said. %u201cWe would bring broken bikes and they would bring their broken bike and we would show them how to do certain things and they Wenatchee students learn about bike safety, sustainability in after-school programBy Jenni RodasThe Wenatchee World Getty Imageswould just start %u2026 it was incredible to watch how they could figure it out themselves and then ride home on their bike that they brought that didn%u2019t work.%u201dThe mission of the program is to get kids on bikes and show them a different form of transportation.%u201cWe believe that biking is a socioeconomic equalizer,%u201d Bourke said. %u201cBiking is the most effective transportation in terms of sustainability %u2026 but also, it%u2019s better than bus. It%u2019s better than walking. It%u2019s like the most efficient way of moving.%u201dTo support the program, Sustainable