As the weather warms up this spring and people start to ride their bikes more throughout Central Indiana, the team of Nine13sports gets busy getting more kids on bikes! Although the winter was relatively eventful in terms of our school programming, community outreach, and fundraising events, this spring appears it will be even more action-packed and momentous for our organization.
We’re looking forward to seeing thousands of more smiles like these as the school year winds down!
While the school year is winding down, that doesn’t mean our Kids Riding Bikes® programming is doing the same. As a matter of fact, we’ll be delivering our programming to three different schools over the course of the next few weeks. We’ll be at Sidener Academy for four weeks starting tomorrow; Kids Riding Bikes will be at Avon North Middle School starting Thursday for four weeks; and, our work with Shortridge students at our Bicycle Operations Hub started this morning.
In addition to getting thousands of students on bikes for the months of April and May, we’ll be keeping busy over the next few months engaging with the community in a multitude of community events. The first will be the 6th Annual, “Bike to the Ballpark,” that our staff will be participating in on Thursday, April 14th. This event is organized to celebrate the beginning of the Indianapolis Indians baseball season and is hosted by IndyCog and Sun King Brewery. The pre-party celebration begins at Sun King at 4 p.m. and then the bikes will depart the largest brewery in Indiana at 6 p.m.
We find out next Thursday, April 14, about our final place in the Lids Foundation Tip the Hat Awards and how much money we’ll be able to put back into our youth programs! Additionally, our Founder, Tom Hanley, will be meeting with their entire board of directors to discuss Nine13sports and how their Foundation support will shape Nine13 in the year ahead.
Make sure you check out Bike to the Ballpark! Our staff will be there!
Speaking of Sun King, the recurring event at the brewery, “The Malted Mile,” is going strong. The event is held on the fourth Monday of every month and participants will be able to compete against family, friends, and co-workers on our 1-mile virtual bike racing course to see who can take home bragging rights for the fastest time. The event is held as a fundraiser in support of Nine13sports as a dollar for every pint sold will be going directly back to our organization.
At the same time we’re getting kids and the community on our bikes, our staff is also overseeing and managing an employee wellness program with our largest corporate partner, Franciscan Alliance. The 2nd Annual, “Pedaling for Tomorrow,” program begins on Sunday, April 17th and lasts for eight weeks. The bicycle-focused program includes group rides, tracking of users cycling activities through the, “Map My Ride,” app, fun and rewarding incentives, educational information on cycling, and much more!
What else? We’ll be participating in, “The Week Without Walls,” a week in which students of Shortridge High School participate in an entire week of learning and engagement outside of the classroom. One of the features of the week is the ActiveIndy Bike Tours that our staff, as well as police officers of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, participate in with the students of Shortridge.
All in all, it’s safe to say that we have a great deal to keep us occupied over the next few months, however, our staff wouldn’t have it any other way. Steve Jobs put it best when he said, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” We definitely love what we do here at Nine13sports!