Cub Scout Pack 3112 gathered Monday evening at The Siskiyou School
By Cameron Aalto, Ashland.news
Some 30 Ashland Cub Scouts brought their bikes to The Siskiyou School on Monday evening to learn from experts about the importance of bike safety and bike maintenance. Organizations including the Rogue Valley Transportation District, Ashland Police Department, Ashland Cycle Sport and Ashland Devo shared safety tips, provided mechanical tuneups, and encouraged the scouts as they pedaled about.
Activities like the rock dodge, pebble drop, sudden stop station, and slalom course helped prepare the scouts for terrain that they may encounter in the future, and tested the limits of their bikes to ensure their safety in more realistic scenarios.
Alicia Welder, Cub Master of the Pack, is responsible for all of pack programming. Events like the Grouse Gap hiking safety trip and the Wildlife Safari camp out are examples of educational programs the Pack provides for its scouts.
“We have kids that come from all over the place,” Welder said. “Sometimes different cities have their own packs, so Medford has their own pack, and Central Point, and Jacksonville, so this is Ashland’s pack, but it represents all of the kids in the community.
“It’s a great program where people can do whatever they’re doing, but then still have the community space to bring the kids together and do like age-appropriate activities, so they can kind of, no matter what they’re doing or where they’re at, connect with each other, and (it) just keeps that community strength.”
“I like being with my friends and hanging out and doing Cub Scouts together,” said Webelo Ella Welder, one of the scouts at the event.
What did she learn from the bike safety event? “Today I’ve learned that you should always watch out on the trail and see if there are any rocks,” she said. “And if you need to stop quickly, you should be able to.” Ella added, “You have to wear a helmet when you’re biking, because if you don’t, then you could get a head injury.”
Another scout, Nora Kate Hyatt, said that she learned “how to turn the bike very efficiently.” She says this is important “because you have to turn the handles in a very specific way … if you just keep straight, you’re gonna crash into all (these) things.” To wear a helmet correctly, Nora says that you need to “make sure that you clip it on like under the bottom of your chin and then you make sure to tighten up the little knob at the back.”
While the majority of participants at the event were between the ages of 5 and 11, there were older scouts who attended in support, including Wynter Marks-Ladd (star rank) and Kit Metlen (life rank) who volunteered to help set up and run the event.
Asked what they have learned about bike safety, Kit says that he has learned mostly about “roads and cars, and (to) bike on the right side of the road.” Kit said that, “(scouts is) really big on recognizing bad situations.” Wynter added that scout training prioritizes “recognizing situations that you don’t want to be in and finding ways to remedy it.”
Ashland.news intern Cameron Aalto is a senior at Southern Oregon University. Email him at aaltoc@sou.edu.
