Bike Dr Pays a Visit on World Car Free Day

World Car Free Day was a big one for St Augustine's Primary School this year! WCFD was an event that we had marked in our school calendar when we were planning the your move activities for 2021 all the way back in February! That seems like so long ago now, and with the date fast approaching we needed to come up with a plan of action for the day. Crawford from the City of Belmont had already kindly agreed to provide breakfast for this event, so the your move team just needed to come up an activity to catch the attention of the school community.

We had an accumulation of rewards points burning a hole in our pocket. So we decided rather than lots of small prizes, which we had done for other events earlier in the year, we would invite the Bike Dr to visit and help lucky participants to get their bikes roadworthy for the upcoming school holidays. We hoped that this would assist the regular riders and also incentivise some of the rusty riders to bring their bike to school and feel more confident after a through check-up. After making the purchase in the rewards store, Carol-Ann from the your move team was great and super helpful in booking the Bike Dr for the big day.

We were ready to start advertising the event to the school community. We used facebook, our newsletter, posters around the school and our school communication app to let all staff and families know about the event. As this fell on a Kindy day (usually our events are on a Friday when the Kindy's aren't at school) we made a special trip to the Kindy class on Tuesday to drum up the bike riding fever.

The Bike Dr contacted us to let us know that they will be able to provide a check up to 30 bikes. They suggested raffling tickets to staff and students who had ridden their bikes. We had some lovely parent and student volunteers print, cut, laminate and tie little ribbon tags to be attached to eligible bikes. We wer

When the day arrived we were blessed with magnificent weather. The bikes were streaming in, and what's even better there were more bikes in the parking lot that there were cars! Exactly what we were aiming for on World Car Free Day.

As more and more bikes rolled into the school grounds, the only car that could be seen in the parking lot was the Bike Drs ute! The Yr 6 your move team were waiting at the school gates to adorn active travellers with stickers, badges and tattoos.

The healthy fruit and yoghurt breakfast provided by the City of Belmont was very well appreciated by the hungry travellers. It is always fantastic to have the City support our initiatives in such a generous way.

There were so many bike coming through the gates that we quickly ran out of room in our bike racks and had to create an overflow area in the school hall.

The your move team and a extra few parents helpers tagged up the winning bikes and placed them in the hall for the Bike Dr to have easy access. I am sure the Bike Dr appreciated the reprieve from the elements that the cool, shady air-conditioned hall provided. He worked diligently for hours to get through all of the bikes who had winning tags.

At the end of the day we had fantastic feedback from parents, students and teachers who had been lucky enough to get a bike check up. It is so easy to let bike maintenence slip past during our busy lives, but after this event the wheels at St Augustine's are spinning freely again, brakes are engaging properly and gears are clicking into place as expected.

One of our most regular riders in Year 3 said he was 'stoked' with his bike because it feels brand new again. Another Year 1 and 3 family are delighted that they can enjoy riding again this school holidays after struggling with a dodgy chain, rubbing brakes and slipping gears until the Bike Dr saved the day.

Thanks City of Belmont, Bike Dr and Your Move for helping make our World Car Free Day such a special event.