Lyndy Moore giving a bike safety demonstration.
Students at Michigan Avenue Elementary School learned what it takes to be safe while riding their bikes to school and had a lot of fun doing it.
“How many of you are drivers?” the Purple Bike Lady asked students. They quickly learned that they all are since they ride bicycles and must follow the rules of the road. Thus began the bicycle safety lessons targeted to each grade level throughout the day.
The Purple Bike Lady, aka Retired Orlando Police Department Community Service Officer Lyndy Moore, joined Bike/Walk Central Florida’s Barbara Giles, and St. Cloud Police Department’s School Resource Officer Scott O’Neill on May 13 for a fun and information-packed Bike Safety Day. During the day, these Best Foot Forward partners educated 617 students on bicycle safety and fit 150 helmets. Students also took home age-appropriate informational materials on bike safety to help reinforce what they learned.
The third-grader’s bike, completely destroyed in the incident.
The event was organized in part because of a recent incident where a driver struck a Michigan Ave. Elementary third-grader while he was riding his bike home from school. Thankfully, he was wearing his helmet and recovered from the crash. The third-grader shared his story and a photo from Officer O’Neill of his mangled bike with his classmates.
“Lyndy has a flair for captivating the students while the crucial bicycle safety messages sink in,” said BWCF’s Barbara Giles. “Her famous egg-drop that shows the effectiveness of a bike helmet even got my attention.” While Lyndy was teaching the bike safety lesson, Giles was busy fitting helmets on students in need as fast as possible. 150 students went home with helmets at the end of the day, courtesy of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).
Lyndy will be busy this summer training teachers in Orange and Osceola County so that they can use the FDOT bike trailers in each county to provide bicycle training to students throughout the school year.
