By Charles Pekow — The Navajo Nation is continuing its leading efforts to promote cycling for youth. It plans to sponsor this fall “a School Health Bicycling Program” for schools located within the Gallup Service Unit along the border of its reservation in New Mexico.
The nation plans a Special Diabetes Prevention Program for the Indians School Health Bicycling Project during the current fall academic season. It involves hiring a contractor to work with the Gallup McKinley County Schools, Bureau of Indian Education Schools, and other contracted schools. Only two or three schools will enjoy the full program, however.
“The bicycling program will be simple and provide a fun physical activity for the students. The students will learn about bike safety (helmet, weather, reflective clothing, reflective stickers), the road/street safety (street smart, signs, traffic), simple bike maintenance (safety checks, tires), and the different types of bicycling (fun physical activity, competitive, bicycling racing, mountain biking),” says the request for a contractor.
The nation will loan bikes and the contractor will “provide awards/promotional items to the participants.”
See https://sam.gov/opp/10308a9d893d487e8be1a513877f88e3/view.
Also, the Indian Health Service (IHS) plans this fall “a Multi-Day Bike event for the Navajo Area community.” The event will “focus on improving knowledge and skills in trail building and maintenance, biking safety, and mechanics,” according to the request-for-proposals for a contractor to run it.
IHS and Navajo Nation have been out front in recent years in promoting bicycling on its reservation in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, particularly for children. See our previous articles at https://www.cyclingwest.com/community/navajo-nation-working-to-expand-bicycling-through-new-trails-kids-programs-and-racing/ and https://www.cyclingwest.com/advocacy/road-advocacy/bike-education-program-coming-to-navajo-schools/.
Details about the event at https://sam.gov/opp/d96615b2e90441088e48950fbf213751/view
