Summer is here, and that means kids are riding their bikes around town.
The Baltic Summer Recreation Program and Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Department teamed up to hold the first-ever bike rodeo on Thursday to teach children about bicycle safety.
Kids brought their bikes and helmets to the school parking lot and deputies conducted bicycle safety inspections and helped with tune-ups after talking with the group of 90 youth about bike safety. The talk focused on rules of the road, proper hand signals and the importance of using a helmet.
“Our goal is we want these kids to be able to ride through their neighborhoods and stay safe,” said Sheriff’s Deputy Trevor Osmer.
Several stations were set up to help kids learn riding skills while keeping control of their bikes.
“The main object for these games is to go slow and learn how to keep control of the bike,” Osmer said. “It’s not about going as fast as you can.”
One of the kids’ favorite stations featured a game called paper boy that aimed to make sure kids focus on keeping control. The object is to toss rolled up newspapers one by one into a row of five boxes while riding. The boxes decrease in size the farther the children rode down the sidewalk. Prizes such as t-shirts and water bottles were handed out to the best riders in several stations.
Eight-year-old James Folsland was told during the inspection that his bike needs some work.
“It needs to be fixed,” he said as he pressed down on the hand brake that was jammed. “My brakes don’t really work.”
Trace Vosburg, 9, was told his bike is in great shape, but that he needs to grow into it. He got the bike for Christmas last year.
“It’s a little hard to touch the ground,” Vosburg said while he sat on his bike and reached his toes to the sidewalk. “I need to be a little taller. I’ll grow, though.”