Hundreds of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools middle schoolers will get to learn about the joys of cycling in PE this year thanks to Riding for Focus grants from Outride.

Outride is a non-profit that works to expand cycling opportunities in the communities they partner with because of the social, emotional, physical, and cognitive benefits cycling can provide. They’ve partnered with over 400 schools in the past 14 years and granted more than $2 million to over 250 cycling programs. At least 50,000 kids benefit from their services every year.

The Riding for Focus grant provides winning schools with 30 Rockhopper bicycles, as well as helmets, curriculum, professional development, and Outride staff support. Classes built around this grant offer a fun and friendly starting point for an ever-rising number of students who have no previous experience riding bikes.

Shawn Mouzon-Byrd from Flat Rock Middle School received the grant last year after several years of applying, and she thanks WS/FCS Director of Healthful Living Karen Brown for her support in making it through the application process. She returned this year as a leader and trainer at Outride’s Summit in Morgan Hill, California. She was joined by Angela Lambson from Winston-Salem Preparatory Academy, who attended as a new grant awardee.

Both teachers received professional development on bicycle education at the summit and got to speak with other teachers from around the country about how they’ve utilized bicycles to enhance their curriculum. They also got to learn about the history of bicycles in transportation and athletics, as well as the surprisingly complicated engineering that goes into making them. The two of them were impressed by the passion that Outride’s curriculum infuses into physical education.

“Everybody seems to be so happy with it,” Lambson said. “They enjoy their jobs, which seems to be so rare these days. Most people go to work because they have to, but they go because they love what they do.”

During her first year with the program, Mouzon-Byrd took her students on a field trip to Salem Lake to ride their bikes around the trail. She didn’t tell them until after their ride that the loop was about seven miles long because she thought the duration might intimidate them. But every student made it all the way around the loop, and the sense of accomplishment among the group when it was over was palpable.

“They were so proud of themselves, and I was so proud of them,” Mouzon-Byrd said. “I want them to know that they can do hard things.”