Page 16 - Flathead Beacon // 4.2.14

16 | APRIL 2, 2014
NEWS FLATHEADBEACON.COM

Owen Shipp makes
adjustments to
his bike during the
Gateway to Cycling
program.

GREG LINDSTROM
Gateway to Cycling
FLATHEAD BEACON

Bike-building program
to build new bikes from scratch, cobble youth to get outside and exercise. We’re True Value, and the Grace and Orville
furnishes Columbia Falls incomplete bikes together piecemeal- involving kids that otherwise aren’t in- Ritzman Children’s Fund.
style, or refurbish the bikes they already volved in extracurricular activities,” Great Northern Cycles in Whiteish
High School students own and restore them to working condi- Lewis said.
donated a bike stand, while Free Cycles
tion under the supervision of a trained On hand to lead the workshop was Missoula, on which the Gateway pro-
with free wheels, teach- mechanic.
mechanic Vincent Erickson, a 2012 Co- gram is based, contributed scores of bike
According to the program’s mission: lumbia Falls High School graduate who, parts.
es maintenance skills
“The students will leave the program after attending the United Bicycle In- “I have so many thank you notes to
with a bike of their own, skills to do ba- stitute in Ashland, Ore., landed a job as write,” Carrie O’Reilly, a special educa-
By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Beacon
sic maintenance on their own bikes, an a bike mechanic at Glacier Cyclery in tion instructor at Columbia Falls High
understanding of bike safety, and a con- Whiteish.
School, said.
COLUMBIA FALLS — For Colum- nection to the greater bike community Erickson showed the students how Tyler Tourville, a longtime mechan-
bia Falls High School freshman Owen in the Flathead Valley.”
to repair and patch their inner tubes, ic at Glacier Cyclery and the founder of
Shipp, a functioning bike is the key to “For some of these kids, a lat tire which for some is a skill that means the Flathead Fat Tires, provided a lesson
unlocking a world of freewheeling ad- means the bike is broken,” said Chris diference between a functioning bike plan for the 10-week program. The syl-

venture. Until recently, that world had Lewis, a school-based mental health and one gathering dust in the garage.
labus covering everything from tube
eluded him.
worker with Kalispell Regional Health- “I’ve got to replace the tubes on both patching to making repairs on derail-
As he pedaled around the school care who helped start the recycled-cy- tires and replace the rim,” sophomore leurs and wheel sets.
parking lot on a recent weekday, how- cles program. “This teaches them basic Christopher Winsor said. “I mountain “Hopefully by the end of the pro-
ever, bunny hopping up a curb and grin- bike maintenance, gives them a forum bike pretty hard so I pop my tires a lot. gram we will have covered all of our
ning ear-to-ear beneath his helmeted to hang out with peers and work on and I want to learn how to build bikes and bases,” said Katy Kelly, who helped start
head, it was clear he’d found a gateway to talk about bikes and learn basic mainte- keep up on maintenance, and here I can the program, which also encourages

a two-wheeled kid kingdom.
nance skills.”
learn from people who know how.”
students who beneit to give back to the
“I just love bikes and I’ve always Last week, about a dozen students In addition to the volunteer hours community.
wanted a mountain bike. I’ve never had – all of them recommended by school to facilitate the program, the bicycles, To that end, the Gateway students
one so I kind of just sit around the house counselors, teachers or the principal parts and tools are the result of an out- will demonstrate bike safety at local el-
and dream. Now I can go riding,” he on the belief that they will beneit from pouring of donations from the com- ementary schools.
gushed.
the program – gathered in a classroom munity – bicycle shops and local resi- “The kids are stoked on it, so that’s
Shipp is among a cross section of stu- brimming with bike parts and tools, as dents have dropped of equipment in the biggest reward in the end,” Lewis
dents participating in the new Gateway- well as a leet of cycles in need of a tune- droves, while Gateway to Cycling has re- said.

to-Cycling program, a volunteer-led, up.
ceived grants from Plum Creek Timber [email protected]
after-school workshop that allows teens
“We are trying to empower the local
Co., Whiteish Credit Union, Nelson’s