The City of Brownsville seeks to increase bicycling and walking and to promote healthy lifestyles. Brownsville City Commissioner Dr. Rose Gowen has previously written about Brownsville’s efforts to create a vibrant, prosperous, and healthy community. BikeTexas is happy to continue to partner with Brownsville’s leaders to help achieve this goal.
In one more step towards a healthy community, Dr. Gowen, Brownsville ISD Wellness Coordinator Anisa Gonzales, and PE/Health Curriculum specialist Fred Tamez worked with BikeTexas to train Brownsville ISD elementary and middle school teachers in the SafeCyclist curriculum.
The Brownsville ISD Wellness Center was a great venue for the training with its large gym and cafeteria to accommodate the 29 enthusiastic participants. In addition to Brownsville PE teachers, BISD Police, UT School of Public Health, City of Brownsville Health Department, and the non-profit Healthy Communities of Brownsville all sent staff members to learn the fun SafeCyclist program. All of the attendees are now certified to share the bicycle and walking safety lessons with schoolchildren.
Dr. Susan Hart of UT Brownsville arranged an additional training on UTB campus. BikeTexas was delighted to train 18 students who will be P.E. teachers after they graduate. These young educators are now equipped to teach their future students about bicycle safety, starting in their first year of teaching.
While BikeTexas staff were in Brownsville, they also met with community leaders to discuss Brownsville’s second Open Streets event, CycloBia (with a ‘B’ for Brownsville). The city’s first CycloBia was November 4, 2012, and fired up from the success of that event, the community is looking forward to the second CycloBia on March 17. Brownsville’s eventual CycloBia plan is to open the streets for the community four times a year. With the momentum Brownsville has going for a healthier community, there is no doubt they will achieve this plan soon.
