Sinkiuse bike rodeo offers helmets, teachings

Aimee Seim/Columbia Basin Herald<br>Members of the Dolce Chamber Trio practice in Harriet West's home one afternoon. The Trio plays music for weddings, special occasions, receptions, and dinners. From left to right are Barb Franz, Harriet West and Ruth Ames.

by Brad W. Gary<br>Herald Staff Writer
| May 22, 2006 9:00 PM

MOSES LAKE — As Misty Rutherford bends her right arm to the sky, the echoes of her students quickly follow.

At a 90-degree angle, the teen volunteer displays the cyclist's signal for a right turn. She intentionally raises the wrong hand, most bike signals utilize the left hand, so the young bikers she faces on this bike rodeo course will use the correct arm. Some also extend their right arm, but she quickly instructs them the correct way.

"It's definitely helpful so they can learn all their signals later in life," Rutherford says.

For the kids who make the trip through the course, these traffic signals are just one of many of their lessons in safety learned at Saturday's bike rodeo at Sinkiuse Square.

Lesson No. 1: There's no such thing as a rain delay.

The clouds that hang over the day, and the occasional fits of rain, don't deter the families who have come for the class in safety and new helmet. T-shirts and sunglasses are replaced by rain slickers and umbrellas, but organizers don't wait for the sun to peak out before they start licensing bicycles, giving courses in bike safety and distributing the helmets grant funding has helped provide.

"This is fantastic," says Moses Lake firefighter Schrade Rouse as he distributes helmets. Registering bikes, the rodeo course, the helmets, the inflation of tires, Rouse says are all part of helping kids be safe.

This is the second bike rodeo for some organizers this spring, who put on a similar event at North Elementary School last month. The two events will facilitate the distribution of more than 700 bicycle helmets. Organizers received approximately $8,000 funding for helmets, provided primarily through a grant from the Spokane-based John P. Jundt Foundation, but also through funding from Basic American Foods, the Rotary Club of Moses lake, Moses Lake Sunrise Rotary and Columbia Colstor.

Lesson No. 2: Follow the signs.

Sinkiuse Square is the city's downtown parking lot most days, but the orange cones and traffic signs have turned this square into an obstacle course at just the right height for even the earliest of learners. A yield sign at the course's start stands barely 3 feet off the ground, and is surrounded by similar crosswalk and stop signs, connected by the miniature orange cones.

Seven-year-old Trevor Weston points out all the hand signals he learned in the course, which he says he didn't know before today. His favorite part, though, is being guided through the zigzags of the course by one

of the rodeo's volunteers.

"I liked when I had to follow that guy around," Trevor says. "When you have to go zigzagging and stuff."

Lesson No. 3: You don't need horses for this rodeo.

Before zigzagging on the course, each rider must depart their bike to pass through a crosswalk. Volunteer Kora Hansen instructs each to get off their bike and walk through the homemade street crossing. But the two wheels aren't a requirement.

Merritt Meacham is 2 and a half years old, and deplanes from his tricycle to venture across the crosswalk.

Merritt has an extra wheel, and two more than 11-year-old Natalia Tolley. On her unicycle, Tolley has little trouble walking through the crosswalk. But she calls the final zigzag "a little tough" with just the one wheel.

Lesson No. 4: Helmets save your brain.

Despite their different bikes, these riders all share something in common when they venture through the course. Their new helmet.

Before the rodeo kids get a helmet of their own, Cathy Wilkins gives a lesson in their need. The registered nurse is working with Safe Kids Grant County and the Grant County Health District to give safety classes on the need of helmets to the kids.

"It's a message of keeping your brain safe," Wilkins says between classes.

Wilkins shows a damaged helmet that never got in an accident, but was damaged by constant dropping on a cement floor. She encourages the need for the proper use, and hopes the kids take away the need to wear helmets when they leave.

Rouse knows that accidents can happen even from a ground height fall, and echoes Wilkins' comments about the need for helmets. Rouse says those helmets encase the head, which encases the most important part of the body, the brain.

"The important part of today is safety measures and wearing your helmet is definitely a big part of that," Rouse says

Event organizer Deb Miller points out the event is primarily to teach the safety awareness of wearing a helmet. And those helmets aren't just for kids, organizers also have a number of adult helmets in their stack. Miller says parents can set a good example by wearing their helmets too.

"We're teaching kids an early lesson, that just be comes a habit," she said.

Many of the kids still have their helmets atop their heads after completing the course, and finding their treat at the end of the zigzag. With Dairy Queen dilly bar in hand, Tomoatsu Deguchi enjoys a snack to finish off the course. The 9-year-old isn't letting the cool weather deter from the treat.

Lesson No. 5: Ice cream hits the spot after ever rodeo.