Category Archives: Uncategorized

Earn-A-Bike students pause during their four-mile BWorks graduation ride on October 14 for photos and popsicles inside “Calico Jack’s,” the name given by one of the City Garden fourth graders to a specific tree in Tower Grove Park.

When St. Louis BWorks teacher Chad McCullough pulled up on his bike at City Garden Montessori School after helping guide young cyclists to school on their own bikes earlier this month, upper-elementary teacher Jean Turney handed him a stack of cards from her fourth graders, who all graduated from Earn-A-Bike just a couple weeks ago.

The cards were individual thank-you notes addressed to Chad and fellow BWorks teacher Pat Matthews, who recently devoted six Tuesday afternoons to guiding the kids through lessons ranging from bike anatomy, to fixing flats, to riding safely.

It was wonderful to see what each student wrote — and to view the class through the kids’ energetic eyes.

Turney’s 12 fourth graders are some of the latest to graduate this year from BWorks’ Earn-A-Bike program, which through a Safe Routes To School grant is introducing basic bike safety and maintenance skills to every fourth grader at five St. Louis elementary schools this school year: City Garden, Oak Hill, Walbridge (& Hickey students now based there), Froebel and Patrick Henry.

Below are just a few of many gems these particular BWorks graduates shared, and which we’re sharing with their schoolteacher’s blessing.

“I loved going to Tower Grove Park. It was so beautiful biking in Tower Grove Park. Thank you for teaching me the ABC Safety Check. … My mom [was] going to sell her bike, but she wanted to keep it now that I can ride my bike and she wants to go to the park and stuff and ride with me.”

“You truly are amazing! In the first week, we started to get to know each other — we were finding our helmet size, then got straight to work. … [On Day 4] we were weaving with our bikes, and fell sometimes, as well as not braking. Mr. Chad and Ms. Pat kept us encouraged. … On to the fifth week, we were biking again, and still had our ups and downs, but we never gave up. Sixth week I got sad because I knew we would only have one week left of BikeWorks. That day the bike container came [see picture below], and while we were waiting we did the slowest race ever on our bikes!”

“BikeWorks was SO MUCH FUN!!!!! And I wish I could do it again. Thank you for giving us a BIKE!!! And a LOCK. We learned how to take apart and build a bike and the same for tires. We learned bike safe bike smart.”

“I loved doing the drop test and designing my beautiful helmet. It was so fantastic learning about all the parts of the bike. I will always remember the ABC Safety Check before I go on my bike.”

“I’m very glad you were my teacher, because you taught me hand signals that I did not know! It was very interesting. But my favorite part was the last day! I loved biking to Tower Grove Park. I loved Calico Jack’s and the popsicles. And I loved the snacks!”

“I loved going to Calico Jack’s and showing everyone [the tree]. Oh and thank you for teaching me how to shift gears.”

“Thank you so much for spending your time on us and teaching us new skills. … From the beginning to the end you guys always were by our side. You taught us hand signals, how to rebuild a bike and how to work a bike lock. I loved how you guys made it harder and harder every day. It was thrilling when we rode to Tower Grove Park.”

“Thank you again for being a great BikeWorks person and that is it. Bye.”

We hope these great descriptions brought a smile to your face as well, dear reader.

Also: It’s that time of year where our final six-week BWorks cohorts of the year are already fully registered, but we’ll be releasing more class options for early 2026 very soon! Be sure to check out the registration page at https://www.bworks.org/classes/ for the latest options for getting started in Learn-To-Ride, Earn-A-Bike or Earn-A-Computer.

We’re celebrating 12 brand-new bike riders as we look back on this week, each of them graduating from a four-week Learn-To-Ride cohort that wrapped up in recent days. We also kicked off our first-ever Earn-A-Bike cohort at the International Institute of St. Louis this weekend! Meanwhile, our Humboldt crew got more practice on their chosen bikes during aftercare, and our City Garden Montessori #bikebus was rolling again, with 49(!) K-8 students joining Wednesday’s guided ride to school. We also talked in depth about bike safety with two eager packs of scouts this week, assisting with their evening bike rodeos at local elementary schools. And on the computer side of things, our dedicated staff and volunteers geared up for two more fast-approaching Earn-A-Computer launches, one onsite and one in partnership with Vitendo4Africa in Hazelwood. It’s a busy fall so far! Learn more about how you can help at https://www.bworks.org/donate/.

BWorks student Lilah Oelke gets ready for her Earn-A-Bike class’s graduation ride that took place earlier this month in Soulard. | Photo by Carrie Zukoski

Like many teenagers, St. Louis-area resident Lilah Oelke appears to lead a busy, full life juggling a lot of schedules and commitments — enough to make some of us adults tired just thinking about it all. When she shows up to Day 5 of her recent Saturday morning Earn-A-Bike class at St. Louis BWorks, for example, she’s a bit breathless from helping organize a charity event even earlier that same morning. And yet here she is, wide awake, prepared and ready to roll.

It’s not surprising to her BWorks teachers, who have had the opportunity to watch the 16-year-old grow in her confidence and skills in amazing ways over the past year, initially as a student in BWorks’ four-week-long Learn-To-Ride program. Like a growing number of American kids, Lilah at that point simply had not yet had the opportunity to master the skill of riding independently on two wheels.

“And I didn’t have a desire to learn after being injured while learning to ride when I was little,” she explains.

But when she learned she’d been accepted into a German exchange program through her school — and particularly that her experience overseas would include a four-hour bike tour through Munich — she decided it was time to commit to the BWorks lessons. She was determined to ride a bike in Germany in the summer of 2025.

“Being a pediatric cardiology patient who struggles with anxiety of being hurt, it was difficult for me initially,” Lilah says. “It wasn’t until closer to the end of my Learn-To-Ride sessions that things began to click.”

Lilah then devoted more time outside of BWorks to riding with assistance from her dad, and made such practice part of her routine to gain even more confidence. By the time this past summer rolled around, she was ready.

“All of the staff and my classmates on the trip knew how much time I had put in to prepare for the ride in Germany,” Lilah recalls of her trip. “It was honestly a bit surreal and emotional, reflecting on how much I had worked for this moment on the bike tour.”

Just like learning to ride, the Munich tour was not without its challenges. So much bumpy cobblestone! And a very different kind of bike than the BWorks mountain bike she’d learned on.

“The biggest stressor was the fact that they didn’t provide me a helmet!” Lilah says of her experience riding in Germany. “But in the moment, I continued to reflect on how much time and work I had put into learning how to ride, and how I really didn’t want to miss out on the beautiful scenery and experience. I’m so glad that I didn’t!”

Just a few months after returning from overseas, Lilah decided to jump into another free BWorks program: the six-week Earn-A-Bike experience, which wrapped up earlier this month for her and 11 more Saturday morning students.

“Learning all the components and mechanics of an actual bike through Earn-A-Bike has been very empowering and provided me a sense of safety,” Lilah says. “I will feel safer on rides now knowing how to care for my new bike. It’s also been helpful to have learned the rules of the road for bikers.”

She says she hopes to ride the bike she recently took home from BWorks around her neighborhood as well as Great Rivers Greenway trails.

“I’m still feeling a little unsure about urban riding, but hoping it will become a little more smooth over time,” she explains. “I also hope that the bike tour in Germany will be the first of many European bike tours in my future. Learning how to ride a bike feels like an important life skill, and I’m incredibly grateful that it’s one that I didn’t miss out on. I’m also very grateful for the BWorks team for helping me get to this point of my bike riding journey, and for their continued encouragement and support!”

BWorks graduate Lilah Oelke documents a moment with a truly enormous pretzel on her recent trip to Germany, which included a four-hour bike tour of Munich. She learned to ride a bicycle a few months prior through St. Louis BWorks’ free Learn-To-Ride program for kids ages 8 to 17.

Despite a very wet Saturday that meant shifting a couple class sessions in the afternoon, our BWorks village finished out the week strong. In addition to celebrating 29 new Earn-A-Bike graduates at #STL elementary schools in Botanical Heights and Walnut Park East early in the week, running two #bikebus rides on Wednesdays to get kids to and from school actively and safely, and completing dozens of quick fixes for local university students, we gathered with 29 BWorks youth, family members and volunteers on this beautiful, windy Sunday to soak up the fall season. Together we rode about 11 miles round trip from the SWIC MetroLink to Belleville Eckert’s and back. We picked pumpkins and enjoyed wagon rides, cider and more. Big thanks to Great Rivers Greenway for their support of this year’s BWorks alumni adventures, and to Eckert’s for gifting us wagon rides!