Eight years ago the annual bicycle safety day in Mineola was first held in an empty parking lot in the village and was limited to bike and helmet inspections.
This past Sunday, the original “bike rodeo” which was founded as a partnership between the shop and AAA has grown in size and stature, encompassing half a block on Jericho Turnpike and including numerous more activities including a skills course and various presentations including a human-powered smoothie blender hooked to a bike.
“We never called in all the vendors, Mineola volunteer ambulance corps, fire department, police,” Mineola Bicycle manager Barry Dworkin said.
That partnership was envisioned by Judge Scott Fairgrieve who Dworkin said approached him “because we had worked together on some other events. It was his idea to kind of broaden it to make it bigger.”
Sunday’s event was hosted by the at Mineola Bicycle. “Mineola Bicycle and Kiwanis basically worked together to set it up,” Dworkin said.
“We’ve been working on it a long time,” Fairgrieve added as he worked on instructing children on the skills course, such as navigating a circle with one hand on the handlebars while another child navigated a figure-eight track.
In addition to having their bikes registered and having both bikes and helmets inspected, children and their parents received safety information for both bicycles and preventing head injuries.
“This is very important,” resident Susan Schmück said holding the literature. “This is something that I think every parent would want to know.”
