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The Spark: How Kids Are Making Meaningful Change in Their Communities
Welcome back to The Spark, our monthly celebration of how people just like you are creating positive change, one meaningful step at a time. The Spark is generously supported by Laura Rice. Sign up to Reasons to be Cheerful’s weekly newsletter here and you’ll get The Spark in your inbox at the start of each month.
In this issue:
How “bike buses” use herd mentality to help young cyclists get to school safely
Student volunteers are keeping food-insecure classmates nourished on weekends
Can public markets turn today’s young makers into tomorrow’s entrepreneurs?
Hop aboard the bike bus
Early every Wednesday morning, a small armada of kids dressed in neon safety vests and helmets hits the streets of Trussville, Alabama. Belting out Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen songs, they pedal their way through the Birmingham suburb, picking up more pint-sized cyclists as they go, until, about 20 strong, they arrive at their destination: Magnolia Elementary School.
This is the Magnolia Bike Bus, one of more than 470 groups around the world that coordinate two-wheeled commutes for students to and from school.
The idea dates back to 1998, when parents and a school in Brecht, Belgium coordinated a group ride to school, the idea being that cycling in a herd is safer than riding alone. But the concept really took off after an elementary school teacher in Spain launched a group commute to school with her students and fellow teachers in 2020. Footage of the group, known as a bicibús, went viral on social media; before long, schools across Barcelona — and then the world — started replicating the model.
There are more than 470 bike bus groups globally. Credit: Audra Marshall.
In Trussville, most families get around by car. But after Audra Marshall came across an Instagram account about bike buses last year, she realized her neighborhood would be a perfect place to try it out. Four neighborhoods are adjacent to the elementary school, which can be reached without crossing large roads. And, unlike many parts of Birmingham, the area is relatively flat.
She started a sign-up sheet, expecting only a few people to join her family on the morning ride. Soon, the group grew to more than a dozen regulars. At last year’s special nighttime Christmas ride, about 40 kids and parents showed up.
Every Wednesday, Marshall and her two sons meet their neighbors at 7:20 a.m., then follow a set path to pick up other students, ending up at the school about 25 minutes later. On the ride, first graders mingle with fifth graders, and parents often tag along. “It’s pretty much the easiest day to wake your child up for school,” she says. “They’re popping out of bed.”
Marshall blasts a playlist on each ride. She was delighted on a recent morning when “Who Let the Dogs Out,” a Top 40 song from 2000 (a bonafide oldie), proved to be a huge hit. “I want it to be as enjoyable as it can for them, something that will be one of their childhood memories later down the road,” she says.
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Unlike some bike buses that are organized through schools, Magnolia Bike Bus is a parent-led group. Initially, according to Marshall, the school was reluctant to get behind it, and refused to circulate flyers.
But she’s seen a shift: This year, the bike bus had a booth at the school’s Halloween fundraiser, where they gave away a bike. “Teachers are definitely fans of it now,” she says, after “seeing it grow over the course of time.”
Marshall’s sign-up sheet includes a parental permission form, contact and address information, and the student’s favorite song. Before the school year starts, she alerts the broader community that the bike bus will be passing through, posting reminders in a neighborhood Facebook group and hanging signs along the route.
While her community is particularly suitable, Marshall says bike buses are possible anywhere. In places where schools are along larger roads, she says organizers can often enlist local police as escorts or traffic control.
“Don’t let things scare you or deter you from the idea,” she says. “Don’t even worry about the number of people who might show up, because if you build it, they will show.”
For information about how to start a bike bus in your neighborhood, visit Bike Bus World.
After-school snacks, powered by kids
Each week, high school students in Bedford, New Hampshire gather to pack up bags with jars of peanut butter, granola bars, and other snacks and easy-to-package meals. At the end of the week, these bags are sent home with about 1,150 of their classmates across the school district.
Food parcels put together by high school students can help support their peers during weekends, when subsidized school lunches aren’t part of the daily routine. Credit: Oleksii Synelnykov.
One in five children in the U.S. is food insecure. The National School Lunch Program is a key source of nutrition for kids, providing federally subsidized meals for 29.4 million schoolchildren. But between Friday and Monday, many of those kids may not have reliable meals.
That gap prompted siblings in the Manchester area in 2016 to start Fueled By Kids, an organization now run by Bedford High School students. Student volunteers gather on Thursdays to prep bags of food. Then, school counselors and principals across 21 of the district’s schools distribute the bags each week, keeping the recipients anonymous from the student volunteers. To date, the student-run effort has packed more than 235,000 bags of food, distributing almost 1.9 million meals and snacks.
Making more than a buck
For budding professional makers, learning a craft is only the half of it. The other half is building entrepreneurial skills — something they’re learning at children-exclusive markets.
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Markets that welcome young vendors are popping up from Massachusetts to New Mexico, giving young people a chance to sell their self-made wares to the public. For instance, the City Flea, a curated public market in Cincinnati, organizes an annual parallel public market for vendors aged four to 14. And last month, Belmont Farmers Market in Massachusetts held its first “Entrepreneur Day” for kids, teaching them not only how to sell their goods, but to write business plans and develop marketing concepts.
Getting a taste of business appears to have benefits for kids beyond just making a buck: The children’s entrepreneurship organization Lemonade Day, which encourages kids to start lemonade stands, finds that the experience boosts skills in problem-solving, communication and applying math in the real world.
The post The Spark: How Kids Are Making Meaningful Change in Their Communities appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful.
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