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Greenfield: Youth bike helmet prizes, Spanish and English bike safety info at South County Health & Safety Fair

You bet! There was a bike community presence at the first South County Health & Safety Fair.

Bike info and helmets were a hit at this inaugural event 8/30/12. Contact Mari for more photos.

Besides Greenfield Police Department and Bicycling Monterey, learn who else supported this bike outreach in South County: Read on for the announcement that was posted in advance of the Health & Safety Fair.

(Update: Some Greenfield fifth graders will have bike safety training in 2013, thanks to the Transportation Agency for Monterey County. Click here.)

On October 30, 2012, Mari Lynch spoke at the noon meeting of the Greenfield Rotary Club, telling Rotarians about HER Helmet Thursdays spots in Greenfield and countywide, and other Bicycling Monterey resources and projects. She also met with the new Greenfield City Manager, extending a special welcome from the Monterey County bike community.

Wed, 8/15/12 – Noon to 4 p.m. in Greenfield!

In cooperation with the Greenfield Police Department, Mari Lynch of Bicycling Monterey will be sharing California bicycle laws and bike safety information in English and Spanish  with South County youth and adults.  Where? At the first South County Health and Safety Fair, held at Village Green Park, 98 S. El Camino Real, Greenfield.  When?  Wednesday, August 15, noon to 4 p.m.

The below listed donors have all donated youth bicycle helmets–including sizes for toddlers, children, and teens–that will serve as raffle prizes for youth (under 18) in free raffle drawings.  How can youth enter the raffle? Come learn about bicycle laws and bike safety at the fair! Raffle prizes will be drawn throughout the afternoon, including some after 3 p.m., when high school gets out.

Some kids are fortunate.  The cost of a bike helmet is manageable for their family’s budget, and they have parents who are knowledgeable about CA bike laws (requiring helmets for under 18) and bike safety.  But not all have had that advantage yet.  Tip of the helmet to the following Monterey County bike community leaders who are helping to change that.

Helmet prize donors

Thanks to the following for donation bicycle helmets:

Some of the donated helmets, all waiting for a trip to Greenfield and to find their new homes with  South County youth!

Thanks to these folks too

Special thanks to Greenfield PD Records Clerk Isabel Landeros for oral translation and Officer Armando Mendoza for helmet fitting at the fair. Thanks also to Greenfield PD’s Interim Chief Sills, SGT Fred Perez, Records Supervisor Ysela Serrano,  and Records Clerk Maria Ramirez  for their support, including photocopies of bike law summaries, and providing table and sun canopy at the fair.

Thanks also to Stephanie Villanueva for graciously stepping up to photocopy additional bike safety information, and to Ernesto Mireles, DDS, Greenfield & Salinas Dental Group (831) 674-5501, for generously providing copies.

And special thanks to the Monterey County Herald for alerting Bicycling Monterey to this event.

The South County Health & Safety Fair, geared to Salinas Valley residents, is sponsored by Greenfield Village Apartments.   Questions about the fair?  Call Erica Mayorga (831/674-9298).   The fair is the first of what is hoped will become an annual event. [5/8/13 update: Erica of Greenfield Village Apartments indicated no event is scheduled for 2013.]

The fair will include a blood drive.  Sixteen agencies and others are participating. Download a PDF of the poster to see them all, and to share the news with others.

South County Health & Safety Fair

Besides bike helmet prizes, the Health & Safety Fair includes other raffle prizes from other donors too, such as $50 cash gifts, Little Cesar’s and Subway certificates, Laundry Land certificates,  free haircuts, and more.

How you can help

If you’d like to make more helmet prizes possible, please contact me.

For the 2012 fair, which is on a Wednesday, no one was located who could get away to provide minor bicycle maintenance/repairs, such as brake adjustment, patching a flat, or replacing an inner tube.  Contact me if you might be able to help do that for the 2013 fair, which may be scheduled for a weekend.  Related donations, such as inner tubes, are also welcome.

Greenfield police officers take their responsibilities for public safety seriously.

That’s why they are teaming up with Bicycling Monterey to help more kids, and adults, learn about bike laws and safety. As with other Constables of the Peace in Monterey County, they know biking is a great transportation option, as well as having many other benefits, such as helping to turn the tide on the childhood obesity and diabetes epidemic.

* * * * *

Here’s a shout-out to Ariana Green, Ellie Kincaid, NPS Cycling Club, and Velo Club Monterey for being bike community leaders in safety outreach to our Monterey County youth!
Ariana Green, a traffic planner

beams over a new bicycle rack near Trader Joe’s at the Uptown Monterey Shopping Center.

 Ellie Kincade

works at REI Marina, where bike parking is handy for shopping-by-bike as well.

 Naval Postgraduate School Cycling Club

members were sorry this South County Health & Safety Fair was on a Wednesday, when they are in class, instead of a weekend.  They wanted to come along and offer to help fix up some kids bikes!

Below, some are teaching Scouts bike skills.

 Velo Club Monterey

Bicycling Monterey’s steady readers already know that Velo Club Monterey members like to give kids a boost:  We saw them lending the 3, 5, and 7 year old Harrison children, and their parents, a hand on the hills of Monterey County!  Now they’re contributing helmets for South County youth.  Look out, VCM.  Thanks to your support, you may soon find some South County kids zipping past you on your next Salinas Valley ride!

Photo courtesy of Steve E. Anderson.

 

Post was previously published on 8/5/12

This post was published on 14 August 2012. One or more changes last made to this post on 15 July 2017.

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