St. Peter’s Episcopal Church housed a pack of Amarillo Cub Scouts on the evening of Thursday, April 6. A presentation on Bicycle Safety and Maintenance was presented by Texas Bicycle Coalition’s Amarillo Outreach Coordinators Fernando Martinez and Joyce Cunningham.
After a few quiet comments of “My bike doesn’t look like that” the kids settled down to learn. The Coalition staff gave a quick course of bicycle parts identification, helmet sizing and adjustment, bicycle laws, bicycle safety inspection, hand and arm signals and share the road guidelines. The youngsters (and some adults) were dazzled by the magic of Martinez as he demonstrated “protect your brain, wear a helmet” with the egg drop presentation.
A mother quizzed Martinez with, “My son’s bike has a flat. What do I do?” Always anxious to please, he pulled out some fix-a-flat tools and dropped into his old mechanic days. Demonstrating the proper sequence of fixing a flat took him no time at all.
After the meeting, parents and kids eagerly helped carry the equipment out to the car while typically asking Martinez and Cunningham questions non-stop. As we all crawled into our cars to go home, one child was heard asking if he could get his bike out when they got home and work on it. He wanted to see if he could fix a flat that fast and easy. He’s right. There’s no time to start practicing like the present.
