Anne Sullivan Elementary School students get surprised with new Strider bikes in gym

Kindergarteners at Anne Sullivan Elementary School received a fun surprise after recess Thursday morning: a gift of 20 new Strider bikes they can use in gym class to learn the fundamentals of riding a bike.

The gift comes as part of a $360,000 funding partnership between local HDR Engineering and All Kids Bike to get Strider bikes in 40 different schools nationwide. Anne Sullivan Elementary School is one of the area schools benefiting from this program.

Those 20 bikes, helmets and a teacher instructor bike are part of the gift. Physical education teacher Jeananne Soukup said she’s excited for this new curriculum to be part of her classes, as trends show not as many children bike as they used to, and this will be something new and fun for her students to learn.

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Soukup said the Strider bikes will help kindergarteners learn to balance, and then pedals can be attached to the bikes when they’re ready for that next step so they can skip out on using training wheels.

Elizabeth Coday , with HDR, introduced the gift to the kindergarteners and talked about what engineers do at her company, and told the class they would each also get a copy of the book, “I Want to be an Engineer.”

Mayor Paul TenHaken attended the announcement on Thursday and said part of his job as the mayor is to make sure the city has lots of bike trails, and said one of his favorite exercises is bicycling. He said he wanted the students to learn how to bike safely, wear their helmets and look both ways before crossing.

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Principal Nikkie Duin led the students in a cheer for Soukup as she demonstrated how to ride the Strider, which at this stage is walking and balancing while sitting on the bike, and then encouraged the classes to thank HDR for the bikes.

One by one, Duin called students up to try out the bikes and ride them in a lap around the gym, and students cheered for their peers who got to christen the new bikes first.

“When you come to gym class, now you have an opportunity to ride a bike!” Duin said to the students.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Anne Sullivan Elementary School kindergarteners get new Strider bikes