The double doors led in light from the great outdoors and revealed hundreds of bikes sitting, hanging on walls or leaning on each other in a spacious shed. From little tricycles to adult-sized mountain bikes, there are bikes eager for any rider to walk up and grab its handles. On the left side of the shed sat a small work area used to maintain and repair any lucky bicycle that gets to break through the double doors and ride through the streets of San Antonio again.
In June 2011, founder and executive director, Cristian Sandoval and his team, opened Earn-A-Bike Coop., a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote healthy living for all ages and decrease childhood obesity with the use of bicycles. Texas A&M University-San Antonio is an educational sponsor for Earn-A-Bike Coop. and university president, Dr. Cynthia Teniente-Matson, is one of the board members for the organization.
The organization’s new program, Earn-A-Bike at School, will bring the organization to elementary schools Fall 2018. With a curriculum approved by the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, this program is intended to help students learn all about bicycles and healthy living.
The organization recognized the need to help inactive children to regular exercise and are making this move by visiting classrooms and conducting educational lectures on making healthier choices.
Earn-A-Bike Coop. has been to schools around their coop. which include Persher, Bowden, and Cisneros Elementary and have also worked with the Ella Austin Community Center.
“The community around our shop is well-aware of what we have to offer,”
Earn-A-Bike’s Programs Manager, Destiny Mujica said. “With our Earn-A-Bike At School program, it has enabled us to go beyond our proximity.”
Mujica says that the Earn-A-Bike at School program is flexible to each school’s needs and is rewarding for students who complete the program.
“We have a curriculum built that teaches children everything from bicycle safety and maintenance, all the way to nutrition, bicycle parts and putting together a bicycle,” Mujica said.
“We bring this program to the school and if they want to collaborate with us, then we go ahead and run our Earn-A-Bike at School program there. We are able to tailor our program to the school’s needs so if they want us to be there in an after-school capacity, then we’re able to do that. If we need to be there during the school day, then we can do that as well.”
The Earn-A-Bike at School curriculum also targets increasing attendance, good behavior, and better academic performance. Students not only have to complete homework that corresponds with the organization’s bike safety and nutrition lectures, but they are also required to show improvement in their classrooms.
For each student that successfully completes the program, they will be able to attend the Bike-Build event where they are rewarded a bicycle they can build with the help of an Earn-A-Bike volunteer, helmet, light and lock that is theirs to keep.
In a previous interview with Texas Public Radio, Sandoval said that bikes helped change his life as a child.
“Having nothing to do and also my mother working, I started trying to find out how to keep myself busy. And that’s how I found the bicycle.” Sandoval said. “It equals freedom. It equals happiness, joy, anything you want to. We all have a bicycle moment. And those are the moments that actually change us.”
Dr. Matson was invited to join the organization as a board member through the Chairwomen Hope Andrade and Aracely Granados-Garcia.
“I was briefed on the great work that is being performed by Earn-A-Bike. I was inspired by their commitment to youth and providing a healthy lifestyle through a formal incentive,” Matson said in an email. “Additionally Earn-A-Bike has been ambitious in its efforts to expand its programs that serve students and enhancing the educational component of the incentive program.”
Dr. Matson says that Texas A&M University-San Antonio is also continuing to work on how their university can become a more active and healthier community and bikes are included.
“When I arrived at A&M-San Antonio we did not have a recreation facility nor a rec sports. Now we have both, also our residence hall has a fully equipped exercise facility,” Matson said in an email. “We are also working to connect the bike trail to other trails so that employees and students could someday ride their bikes to campus.”
More information on Earn-A-Bike Coop. and the programs they offer can be found on their website at www.earnabikecoop.org
