BILLINGS — On Thursday, the city of Billings and Billings Public Schools celebrated 10 years of their collaborative program, Kids in Motion, at Sandstone Elementary School in the Heights.
Kids in Motion is a free bike repair clinic that brings in bike mechanics to middle and elementary schools about five times a semester. For free, students can have their bikes fixed by professionals.
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Since 2015, Kids in Motion has fixed more than 1,900 bikes, according to the city's transportation director, Elyse Monat.
"(Before we started) it was a bike trailer with bikes, for bike education, in it. Somebody had the vision to try to take that out, and turn it into the Kids in Motion trailer, and we didn't know what would come out of it," said Monat on Thursday.
Kids in Motion has two main goals: to keep kids in the community healthy, and to serve underpopulated communities that may not have access to bike repair clinics.
"If families don't have the money for that, then we don't want that to be a barrier," Monat said.
The program initially began after a sponsorship from St. Vincent Regional Hospital. Now, it's a partnership between the city and the Education Foundation with Billings Public Schools.
At Thursday's celebration was fourth grader Noah Nova. He told MTN the brakes on his bikes were broken.
Does he typically ride his bike to school?
"No, I just rode it here since I heard that people can fix my brakes," he said.
Now that the weather is warming, Nova says he is excited to start riding his bike again.
How long has he had the bike?
"About a year. I got it in the summer for my birthday," said Nova.
One of the mechanics fixing bikes on Thursday was retired public school teacher, Michael Walz.
"If you don't have a bike, it limits you to a couple blocks (surrounding) your house. But when you've got a bike, you can stream all over the place, and get there quickly, and get home quickly," said Walz.
Walz is passionate about providing equal access to transportation for all children after his own experience riding a bicycle as a child.
"When I was a kid, I built all my own bicycles in New York City," he said. "And I grew up, lived all over the place, and saw this program, and gave them a call, and they asked, 'What's your experience?' and I said, 'I built all my own bikes.'"
Kids in Motion is about more than fixing childrens' bikes. It's about providing an equal opportunity to get kids outside, get active, and to get a taste of freedom.
"I remember one time, one kid was like, 'I'm going to ride my bike home from school,' and I don't know if they had done that before. So, just being able to see those things and how excited the kids are (my favorite part about the program)," Monat said.
To learn more about Kids in Motion or to donate to the program, click the link here.
