Outride Awards 44 New Riding for Focus Grants!
The team at Outride is excited to announce 44 new middle school grant recipients of the 2020-2021 Riding for Focus School Program!
Our Riding for Focus school-based cycling program uses cycling as a tool for students to achieve academic, health, and social success. Over the past 5 years, Outride has provided 185 middle schools across the US and Canada with everything they need to get their 6-8th grade students riding including bikes, helmets, starter maintenance equipment, cycling curriculum, and teacher training. That’s over 40,000 students’ lives positively affected!
Outride is a public nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of youth through cycling. Through our Primary Research, Riding for Focus cycling program, and Outride Fund grant giving activities, we provide evidence-based cycling interventions to improve social, emotional, and cognitive health. In addition to the Riding for Focus programs issued to date, Outride has awarded 43 Outride Fund matching grants supporting local cycling communities through education, trail building, and rider development. Both programs yield the positive return on students’ academic, health, and social success and provides answers to Outride’s slogan—What Will You Outride?
When I go and ride, I can feel the unwanted, unnecessary stress leaving my body and feel the calmness, the good energy come in. I can go for even 15 minutes, and there's that sense of gratitude when you come back from a ride. And, even in the weirdest times, if I'm on the bike, everything is okay. Whatever it is, it's going to be okay. I can manage it.
-Mike Sinyard, Founder of Outride
image credit: Shelby Ling
The best success about the program is that riding bikes instills confidence in the kids and teaching lessons in overcoming barriers. I even became more confident with the bike. I was just a kid riding flat pedals in Vans shoes and teaching—not as an expert, but as someone learning to ride, learning all about derailleurs and cogs—and the kids could relate to that.
Jo Giordano, Riding for Focus School Champion
Evergreen Community Charter School, Asheville, North Carolina
One of our first-awarded Riding for Focus Schools
What do my students outride? Stress, ADHD, homework, bullying, divorce, gossip, loneliness, grades, anxiety, relationships, being overweight, and lack of confidence are just some of the answers my students gave. They are reminded of these daily as they get their helmets on and their bikes ready to ride. It’s a small reason why this program is so important. It reminds them that for the next hour they get to go out riding and be whoever they want to be. And that is all that matters.
John Glodek, Riding for Focus School Champion
Dr. Martin King Jr. Middle School, Germantown, Maryland
Due to the challenges of COVID-19, this year’s teacher training for our newest school champions, as well as the Fourth Annual Outride Research Summit at Stanford University, will be conducted virtually in July. Challenges, though, bring opportunities and we are confident that the resilience of our school champions will shine through as they adapt to this new format. The timing of the program announcement not only emphasizes the challenges of the current shelter-in-place orders, but also how essential exercising outdoors is for promoting both physical and mental health benefits.
We are excited about what this research can uncover, possibly identifying which children will most benefit from using physical activities like cycling to treat their ADHD, and how we can structure their activities to be the most impactful on their cognitive functions.
Dr. Allan Reiss, Stanford University Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences
Outride Champions at the Third Annual Reearch Summit at Stanford University
Congratulations to the Riding for Focus Schools—We Salute You & Your School Champions!
Abington Heights Middle School, Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania
Apache Junction High School / Cactus Canyon Middle School, Apache Junction, Arizona
Auburn Middle School, Auburn, Maine
Baboquivari Secondary Campus, Topawa, Arizona
Branciforte Middle School, Santa Cruz, California
Canyon View Middle School, Cedar City, Utah
Clearwater Secondary, Clearwater, British Columbia
Crossover Preparatory Academy, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Deer Park Middle School, North Charleston, South Carolina
Eastway Middle School, Charlotte , North Carolina
Gateway Christian Academy, Hapeville, Georgia
George Washington Carver Middle School, Springfield, Missouri
Gilman Middle School, Gilman, Vermont
Glendale Middle School, Salt Lake City, Utah
Highland Middle School, Highland, New York
Hood River Middle School Hood River, Oregon
Howard Connect Academy Chattanooga, Tennessee
Hozho Academy, Gallup, New Mexico
Illinois Valley High School Cave Junction, Oregon
John D Pierce Middle School, Waterford, Michigan
Judkins Middle School, Pismo Beach, California
Julius West Middle School Rockville, Maryland
Kinawa School/Chippewa School, Okemos, Michigan
Lahaina Intermediate School, Lahaina, Hawaii
Landstown Middle School, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Lincoln High School, Esko, Minnesota
Los Osos Middle School, Los Osos, California
McKinleyville Middle School, McKinleyville, California
Mosier Community School Mosier, Oregon
Mt. Nebo Junior High School, Payson, Utah
Murray Middle School, St. Paul, Minnesota
Newbury Elementary School, Newbury, Vermont
Raul Quintanilla Middle School, Dallas, Texas
Richmond Middle/High School, Richmond, Maine
Robert L. Clemitson Elementary, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada
Samuel Gompers School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Sandusky Jr./Sr. High School, Sandusky, Michigan
Scottsboro Junior High School, Scottsboro, Alabama
Silverdale Baptist Academy, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Tibbett's Middle School, Farmington, New Mexico
Walkerton District Community School, Walkerton, Ontario
Watertown Middle School, Watertown, South Dakota
Waterville Junior High School, Waterville, Minnesota
Westwood Jr. Senior High School, Westwood, California
CONGRATULATIONS—Let’s GO FOR A BIKE RIDE!