Raleigh Bicycles honors Bay Village school principals

Bicycle manufacturer Raleigh Bicycles honored Jason Martin (above), Assistant Principal of Bay High School, and Sean McAndrews (below, second from right), Principal of Bay Middle School, for their commitment to youth bicycling and their leadership of the Bike to School Challenge program in Bay Village, Ohio.

Both men were presented with new 2011 Raleigh Revenio 3.0 bicycles at the closing ceremonies of Bay Bike to School Challenge last Friday by Chris Speyer, vice president of product development and marketing for Raleigh Bicycles in Seattle, Washington, and president of the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association, a leading bicycle industry trade association.

“Raleigh Bicycles wants to honor Jason and Sean for their visionary commitment to youth bicycling. Their Bay Bike to School Challenge is one of the best programs of its kind in the nation, inspiring us and others to support and emulate it as we look to encourage young riders to cycle for fitness, utility and fun” said Speyer. “We hope both men use these bicycles to ride many more miles with their students, friends and families.”

While in Northeast Ohio to honor Martin and McAndrews, Speyer also presented six brand-new Raleigh Talus 2.0 bicycles to Bay and Rocky River students who won the Bike to School Challenge grand prize drawing's at their respective schools.

Speyer announced at the school-wide assemblies that Raleigh Bicycles will once again be sponsoring youth cycling initiative in 2012, along with its local independent bike dealer, Century Cycles. Raleigh also plans to use the Bike to School Challenge as the template to help its bike dealers throughout the United States launch their own bike-to-school initiatives.

Bike to School Challenge sponsored by Century Cycles, Raleigh Bicycles and Chipotle is a three-week program in May in which students at Bay Middle School, Bay High School and Rocky River Middle School commit to ride their bicycles to school to help the environment, improve their health and beat high gas prices – plus win great prizes and have fun. In 2011, students bicycled a total of 32,034 miles to school from May 9 through May 27 – enough miles to circle the globe and then some – which saved the environment 35,237 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions and saved $5,795.92 in gasoline expenditures.

At Rocky River Middle School, the three-week initiative increased the average number of bicyclists to school per day by almost 400%, from 49 to 193. At Bay Middle School, sixteen percent of the school – 130 students – bicycled every day of the challenge despite rainy, chilly weather on many days. The highest overall ride day was Wednesday, May 11, on which a total of 1,070 students biked to all three schools. Bay schools marked its fourth Bike to School Challenge by hitting a major milestone – its students have now bicycled a total of 102,803 miles since the program began in 2008.

For regular updates about Rocky River Bike to School Challenge and Bay Bike to School Challenge, visit www.centurycycles.com/to/bts.