America’s Promise - Amarillo’s Kids-Fest, held on July 30th at Thompson Park, was a huge success by any measure, bringing more than 70 community organizations and 2000 families together on behalf of the future of area children.

Collin Powell, America’s Promise founding chairman first described in 1997 the five following promises for children to grow up and achieve the American Dream: 1) caring adults, 2) safe places, 3) a healthy start, 4) marketable skills, and 5) opportunities to serve.

Kids-Fest brought all of these resources together in Amarillo for the beginning of the 2005-2006 school year.  Starting at 9 A.M and ending at 3 P.M., Kids-Fest was a day of fun for children and a source of important information for their parents.

During the day, several hundred people visited the Texas Bicycle Coalition’s display and learned about bicycle safety, traffic laws, the Texas SuperCyclist Program, and the BikeTexas Safe Routes to Schools Program. Our special guest, Betsy, the BikeTexas cycling robot taught an important and convincing lesson about the importance of wearing a helmet (Fernando Martinez of BikeTexas assisted Betsy, dropping and breaking dozens of eggs to make that point!). Kids also donned bicycle jerseys and medals to experience what it might be like to be a champion, and 

Special thanks  to Sherman Phillips of the Lubbock Bicycle Club,  and members of the Old Tascosa Bicycling Club - - Ken Graham, Joyce Cunningham, and Adonna Ballard, for their cheerful and valuable help. While Joyce didn’t have an opportunity to ride her bicycle that day, she certainly got a workout improvising as “training wheels” for many of the younger children. All in all, it was a beautiful and successful day in Amarillo, with many children and their families learning about cycling, safety and much, much more. Kids-Fest was the right place to start the new school year in Amarillo.