A parent of a 7th grader at Denny International Middle School has launched a crowdfunding campaign to buy bikes for the an after-school bike education program at the school.

Inspired by the Major Taylor Project at nearby Chief Sealth High School, the Denny program would be like a smaller middle school introduction to transportation cycling.

“The idea is to start the kids off at Denny on Mountain bikes and then they could transition to the road bikes they have at Sealth,” said project leader Theresa Beaulieu in an email. “The bikes we want to purchase will be used for the after school program and offered for the Denny-Lincoln Classic bike ride to students who have taken the after school class. They would be stored at the school and maintained by the students themselves.”

You can pitch in to help launch the program via GoFundMe.

More details from Beaulieu:

I am a member of the West Seattle Bike Connections, a PTSA member and a parent of a 7th grader at Denny International Middle School.  For the last couple of years I have been working hard in trying to get more students to ride their bikes to school.  We have a very long back up of cars that pull in and drop their kids off in the front of the school every morning and I would like to see less cars and more bikes and walkers.  We have been awarded the Safe Routes to School mini grants through SDOT for the last two years that have been given us the funds to host Doughnut and Fruit days for kids that ride their bikes.  These days are to encourage them.  We also were able to have our new annual Denny-Lincoln Classic family bike ride that we started last year, that included t-shirts for each rider that was designed by one of the 6th graders last year.

But why I am writing you is because I also have been working with the Major Talyor Project coordinator to get a cycling after school program started to teach students the rules of the road, how to ride safely and bicycle maintenance.  This would be a similar program that they have going on at Chief Sealth our shared campus high school.  This could also lead into a earn a bike program in the winter months. The idea is to start the kids off at Denny on Mountain bikes and then they could transition to the road bikes they have at Sealth

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Our school consists of many students from low income families who don’t have access to bikes. This would give those kids and other kids the opportunity to ride.  The bikes we want to purchase will be used for the after school program and offered for the Denny-Lincoln Classic bike ride to students who have taken the after school class.  They would be stored at the school and maintained by the students themselves.