Dunn Elementary's Winter Bike to Work (or Wherever) Day stop draws nearly 240 participants

Ten-year-old Greyson Jones filled up on lemonade at a stop on Colorado State University’s campus on his way to school Friday. Brian Collins and his son, Japan Powell, ate bacon outside Lucky’s Market.

Although many of the students, parents and staff from Dunn Elementary School participating in Fort Collins’ annual Winter Bike to Work (or Wherever) Day biked, walked or rolled straight from their homes to school, some toured other stations around town along the way.

Physical education teacher Jonathan Crozier, who arranged for the breakfast station on the front lawn of the school along Mulberry Avenue — just a couple of blocks east of Shields Street and north of CSU — counted 239 participants, all connected in some way to the school. Technical issues prevented him from listing the station with the 48 others on the city’s website for the event, he said.

Dunn set up a breakfast station for last year’s Winter Bike to Work (or Wherever) Day as well, he said, and had about 250 people show up.

“We get really good participation for biking events at our school,” Crozier said. “We do an October Bike and Walk to School Challenge with Safe Routes to School, and this year we had 130 kids participate out of our school, which kind of blew everybody else out of the water.

“Being a neighborhood school really helps, but I think we saw several people biking from 4 and 5 miles away today.”

That included some students who live closer but detoured through other stations in the spirit of the event.

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“We got up early, went to bed early, planned a little route,” Collins said. “We went downtown, and we got a little too much sugar, maybe.”

Jones and his family — father, Clint; mother, Tenae, a math and literacy specialist at Dunn; and sister, Hazel, 8 — rode from their house just north of Rolland Moore Park through the CSU campus, stopping for lemonade and other goodies at a station on the historic Oval before winding their way to the school.

Dunn had coffee, donated by Mugs, for the parents and bottled water, granola bars, clementines and bagels with cream cheese — all donated by the school’s parent-teacher organization — at its breakfast table. Another table had a spot for children to sign up for raffle prizes, fold-up maps of city bike routes and various decals, including an “I biked” sticker they could wear on their clothing. And another was set up for exercise, with fuzzy dice students could roll to see what activity the corresponding number required them to perform. Ten jumping jacks, for example, for rolling a 1, or five push-ups for rolling a 5.

There was also a bicycle mechanic on hand, James Lehmann, with his mobile Bike Wrench van and tools. He helped Powell adjust a chain that kept falling off, made minor adjustments on some other bikes and put some extra air into the tires of a few others.

Ashlee Allen usually walks to Dunn with her 10-year-old daughter, Willow, during the winter. But they got their bikes out of the garage, wore gloves and fit winter hats underneath their helmets for the short ride to school.

“I love the whole idea that we bike to school when it’s 24 degrees outside,” Ashlee Allen said. “It’s super cool, and I think it’s really exciting to see so many kids and parents on bikes and so excited.”

Hailee Cisco, the school’s health technician and crossing guard, said last fall that about 25% to 50% of the students at Dunn walk or ride bicycles to school each day. Many of the usual walkers were on bicycles or other rolling forms of transportation Friday. One dad skateboarded in with his child, who was on a small scooter, and another was following his bicycling kid on inline skates.

One family that lives north of town — Kelly and Matt Patyk and their kids, Alaina, 8, and Henry, 6 — loaded their bicycles into a vehicle that they parked a couple of miles away just so they could ride to school Friday.

“I love this event,” said Dan Baker, who regularly rides his bike to work at CSU. He and his wife, Season, and all three of their kids arrived by bicycle Friday from their home near the Old Town library. “The turnout is amazing. Dunn has a pretty active community.”

Biking home Friday? Winter Bike to Work (or Wherever) Day has afternoon stations, too

And that’s really the whole point of the Winter Bike to Work (Or Wherever) Day, Crozier said. He also runs the school’s wellness team for students and staff and a running club. And he’s got students and staff involved this month in UCHealth’s Healthy Kids 5210+ Challenge program to encourage healthy habits.

“We like to just promote getting a little bit of extra movement and activity during the day,” he said.

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, twitter.com/KellyLyell or facebook.com/KellyLyell.news. 

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Winter Bike to Work (or Wherever) Day a big hit at Dunn Elementary