A nonprofit organization is holding classes and clinics in Northern Virginia helping girls gain skills and confidence by learning to ride a bicycle.
Girls in Gear teaches girls ages 5 and up “life skills through bike skills,” says Lucy Thomas, the program director for the DMV region.
In April, the group will hold two types of events: It’s holding a series of clinics called Glide to Ride, where girls of all ages can learn to ride without training wheels. “A lot of people think this is a skill you learn when you’re younger, but we also have teenagers that have never learned to ride before,” Thomas says.
It’s also running its main eight-week season of events designed to teach girls riding and associated skills, such as bike maintenance, all in the aim of helping girls develop self-confidence.
Most people learn to ride bikes from their parents, Thomas says, but that’s not true for everyone. Some kids’ parents don’t know how to ride a bike, or can’t afford one. And many girls “get confidence off their peers,” she adds. “It’s difficult to learn to ride a bike if you’re very nervous, and it’s just maybe you and, typically, a dad out there trying to persuade you it’s going to be OK. Being around your peers can give you that confidence. … And some parents will tell us their children just take direction better from someone else.”
Each week focuses on a bike skill and a social-emotional skill tied together, Thomas says.
“For example, we might learn about signaling on a bike, which requires you to take your hand off the handlebars.” That’s a scary prospect at first, Thomas says, “so we incorporate games. … We might blow some bubbles, get them to ride through the bubbles, and see if they can pop them with their hands. Very quick and easy but fun and encouraging them to take their hands off. And then once the girls are taking their hands off more, they’re being able to hold them out and signal.”
Girls in Gear generally runs two seasons of classes per year, and girls often come back for more than one season as the curriculum is updated. The classes are offered in age groups of 5 to 7, 8 to 10, 11 to 13, and then 14 and up. As girls get older, they can get more age-appropriate lessons on maintenance and such.
Life Skills
Thomas says the skills and confidence developed during bike riding can apply to other areas of life: The persistence it takes to learn to ride, and the feeling of confidence that an achievement engenders, can be transferred to school, work, friendships, or anything else.
“There are a lot more mental health issues going on with young people and children since the pandemic and having to spend so much time virtually. So we really do try and focus on those social and emotional skills to build girls up in every area of their life. And really doing it in a group with other girls can be really helpful,” Thomas says.
“We really want to try and make sure that we get as many girls as possible on bikes and using bikes to get around,” Thomas says. She says that helps them “to have that independence, to get to school, to get to their first jobs as teenagers, all of those kinds of things.”
The nonprofit has a no-questions-asked scholarship policy. It will also provide bikes and helmets for girls who can’t afford them, and for the girls who complete the eight-week program, they can keep them. “We want to make sure that there’s never any financial reason” to miss out on the program and the benefits of bicycling, Thomas says.
The events start in mid-April in Arlington, Alexandria, DC, and Silver Spring, Maryland.
Featured image courtesy Girls in Gear
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