Since late March I’ve been watching the baby bald eagle cam on Santa Cruz Island. They’ve grown from fluffy hatchlings, survived fierce El Niño winds, and soon will be ready to take their first flight. As a parent with a background in early childhood education, I understand and have experienced how babies become toddlers and learn to walk. A baby’s first step is a huge developmental milestone. Imagine if that first step was from the top of a 40-foot tall Monterey cypress. As the young bald eagles spread their wings, that first leap from nest to sky is huge journey from eaglet to fledgling.
Since 2012, The Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition (www.sbbike.org) has annually honored three inspirational women with the Velo Wings Award for making cycling safer and more accessible to everyone in our community. This year’s Velo Wing awardees, Julie Churchman, Jessica Grant, and Lee Knodel (Mrs. B) lead by teaching, advocating, and above all else … by doing. They give children and teens the knowledge, skills, and self-confidence they need to spread their wings.
Julie Churchman is a PE Specialist at Adams Elementary School . She believes that bicycle education is an important part of the curriculum for her kindergarten to 6th-grade students. As Churchman teaches, she wants “children to experience they joy of riding a bike on their own for the first time.” She knows that “the smiles on their faces reveal an inner joy and that they have overcome fears and other roadblocks to acquire a lifelong skill.” Churchman’s hope is that each and every child that goes through the biking program at Adams develops a love of biking. (See www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCsJ16FPWcY&feature=youtu.be) As the children at Adams School get older, Churchman believes, they will use bikes as a form of transportation, a way to stay fit, and to explore the amazing world they live in. She also wants kids to learn how to ride safely, learn the rules of the road, and share what they have learned with others.
