Another Summer of Bike Joy at The Promise Center of Homewood

*Instructors, Sarah Scherk and Lorelei Lehman show riders how to navigate a tight turn at The Promise Center of Homewood.*

Helping young riders build confidence, leadership, and a lifelong love of biking

BikePGH educators were honored to once again spend this summer with our friends at The Promise Center of Homewood thanks to support from The Neighborhood Assistance Program funded by The Hammel Companies (Read about last summer’s program here! )

Founded in 2022 by Nate Goodson, The Promise Center provides out of school time programming for area youth and connects them with vital resources from nutrition to tutoring in a safe and welcoming environment. Considering the need to facilitate safe cycling education and opportunities in Homewood, Mr. Goodson reached out to BikePGH in the summer of 2024 and began an educational partnership. The center has since taken bike education to the next level by installing a traffic garden on their parking lot (the first of its kind in Pittsburgh!) and receiving a new bike fleet donated by Pitt Athletics and Pittsburgh Pro Bikes. BikePGH added the missing pieces to their program by providing trained bicycle educators, onsite support, and additional bike helmets, tools and supplies to keep it rolling smoothly! For kids of all ages, The Promise Center of Homewood is a true Biking Oasis in the community.

Building our momentum

*The Promise Center of Homewood’s parking lot is transformed into a Traffic Garden during summer camp.*

Building on our momentum from last year, this summer’s program featured skill building games and activities for the center’s younger riders utilizing their traffic garden streetscape. Some favorite games include “King/Queen for the Day” where each rider takes turns leading the group and signaling, “Box Slide Tug of War” where teams took turns sliding a flattened cardboard box towards their opponents’ end zone for points, and “Slow Race” where riders competed against the educators to see who could make it to the finish line last without going backwards or putting a foot down. To beat the heat, we held a bucket-filling relay race with buckets inevitably dumped on the instructors heads- although our students needed some help to reach them! Check out this resource for more fun on-bike games to play with kids

For our middle school-aged group, education focused on safe on-street riding techniques inspired by our The League of American Bicyclists Smart Cycling curriculum and bike field trips to The Frick Car & Carriage Museum, Highland Park, and Frick Park. Throughout the program all riders (including some beginners) mastered pedaling, balancing, braking, signaling and riding in groups. On our final ride, our older riders road together with the younger ones throughout the neighborhood to demonstrate their leadership skills. All riders who completed the program earned a “Safe Cycling Award” from BikePGH, as well as bike lights and a helmet, and developed the confidence to ride their bikes safely on Pittsburgh streets.

We thank our educators: Robin Woods, Jordan Wilson, Sarah Scherk, Lorelei Lehman, Alan Karelitz, Jeanne Allen, and Jacob Evangelista for implementing this important program!